State of the Hobby?

[auskie]

I've been out of the Tarantula game for a number of years. Due to being stuck at home for the better part of 2020 I purchased a new group of slings! Only one large mature female B. Smithi remains from my last collection, since the rest of the slings all molted out male. Since I'm now older and have a lot more cash to burn I want to have the bug room I've always dreamed of and maybe responsibly breed some less common in demand species.

While poking around I've noticed less species variety available from online retailers like net-bug and local exotic pet shops. Is sling availability somewhat cyclical, or is the hobby less prevalent than it was five years ago? I skimmed through the "Invertsonals" form and didn't see a lot of activity other than a lot of available MM's with no replies. ):

I guess what I'm looking for is a general conversation about the direction the hobby is going. What has changed the most within the last five years? New laws making certain species illegal? Have you seen a lot of new species available that weren't obtainable in the past?

 

[Liquifin]

A lot has happened in 5 years. Net-bug is not as active as it was long ago with many online tarantula retail sellers coming in as the better alternative for buying tarantula slings. Invertsonals is the section on this forums looking for mating or breeding purposes only and not for buying tarantulas. So you want to look at the for sale section or the classifieds section if you want to buy tarantulas.

The general hobby has changed for the better but also got a bit worse in some areas. There are new species in the hobby that wasn't available then and some prices have gone down in regards to any newer or in-demand species. The hobby has also increased a lot due to Youtube and internet influence. This has caused demand to somewhat go up, but with it also caused a drought for some species and a lot more inflation in regards to online prices. Prices for certain species has severely inflated since 5 years ago, so you might find some expensive or inflated prices for certain species of tarantulas. Imports are becoming more common in the hobby from big online retailers because demand for certain species.

In regards to new laws, there was a restriction on the Sri Lankan Poecilotheria species that banned them being sold accross state lines. So here's the thread for that: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/f...ies-endangered-status-and-limitations.309924/

Oh, and your B. smithi is probably a B. hamorii now as there was a revision in the Brachypelma genus if you've not been up-to-date. But there's a lot to update on if you was absent entirely on 5 years of news and updates.

 

[auskie]

Oh, and your B. smithi is probably a B. hamorii now as there was a revision in the Brachypelma genus if you've not been up-to-date. B

Hah! All day I've been wondering what the hell that was.

Can you enlighten me who the new go-to online retailers are?

 

[Liquifin]

Yea, some species of the Brachypelma genus were either revised or moved into the new Tliltocatl genus.
So here's the thread regarding that:
https://arachnoboards.com/threads/systematic-revision-of-brachypelma-new-genus-described.326415/

To explain your B. smithi situation as easily as possible here's the easy way to understand:
B. smithi --> B. hamorii
B. annitha --> B. smithi (so B. annitha is now B. smithi for clarification).

Also off topic, but here's the revision of the Avicularia species/genus as there was a major revision and clean-up regarding the Avicularias in 2017:

AVICULARIA REVISION PUBLISHED!

I have been waiting since Fukushima's thesis proposal in 2011. It's finally finished... Link to article: http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=10717 Caribena versicolor Caribena laeta Ybyrapora diversipes

arachnoboards.com

Another thread regarding Avicularia revision or Morphtypes: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/avicularia-morphotypes.318314/

I'll PM you online retailers as it's against the policies to post name of online vendors/retailers on threads.

 

[auskie]

It appears Haplopelma lividum is now Cyriopagopus lividus .

 

[Arachnid Addicted]

It appears Haplopelma lividum is now Cyriopagopus lividus .

You have a lot of taxonomical changes to update. Take a look at WSC, I think it will be helpful.

About B. smithi x B. hamorii. What happened is that lots of B. hamorii (probably mostly of them), were wrongly named as B. smithi in the hobby, so it was corrected. Besides that, B. annitha was synonymized with B. smithi, so in this case, yes, B. annitha is now B. smithi indeed.

Also, B. albopilosum, all the "red rumps" Brachypelma, B. schroederi and B. verdezi are now Tliltocatl (new genus).

Hope this could be helpful for now. Welcome back.

 

[Arthroverts]

The hobby at large is increasing I believe. A lot of new species have become available as a lot more people take up this hobby (which means prices have shot up), though that may not appear to be the case as some of the old sellers you are seeing may have gone out of business.

You can't reply to an Invertsonals ad, ha ha. You have to privately message the person.

As mentioned above B. albopilosum is now Tlitocatl (pronounced tleel-ta-kut) albopilosus.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[Tarantularanch2014]

Also, B. albopilosum, all the "red rumps" Brachypelma, B. schroederi and B. verdezi are now Tliltocatl (new genus).

Actually the golden red rump (B. Albiceps) is still brachypelma for some reason. Can’t forget about those guys.

 

[Arachnid Addicted]

Actually the golden red rump (B. Albiceps) is still brachypelma for some reason. Can’t forget about those guys.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with common names, by "red rumps" I meant only the black ones.

I believe the reason B. albiceps is still in the genus, is because its morphological and molecular characters matched with others in the genus. I need to take a look at the article again, though, cause I'm not sure about this.

 

[MrDeranged]

@auskie

Welcome back to the site.

In regards to the Classifieds:

There are currently two areas, Classifieds forums & Classifieds.

The Classifieds forums (For Sale/Trade/Wanted & Invertsonals) are currently being phased out in favor of our new Classifieds section. Replies have never been allowed in either of the Classifieds forums. Currently, new ads are no longer allowed, only the bumping of existing ads.

The Classifieds section (For Sale/Wanted/Free & Invertsonals) is currently in Open Beta and all new ads must be posted there. Each ad has a "Contact" button if you would like to contact the Ad Owner privately. There is also now the ability to "Ask a question" of the owner. Questions are public and can be seen by everyone, but are only answerable by the Ad Owner.

If you are interested in retailers that are currently active, your best bet is to check the Classifieds section and also our Reviews section where you can find listing/reviews for many of the retailers currently active in the hobby.

Regards,
MrD