Stirmi (Apophysis???)

[Atrox084]

View attachment 248304 So I should preface this by first saying that I am not a T expert, but actually a reptile guy. That said, I have always had a soft spot for the big, itchy, NW, terrestrials and have always kept one or two theraphosa sp. on display in my HOT room. Anyway, I recently saw this spider for sale at a local reptile dealer (I know, I wouldn't normally buy a T from a reptile dealer, but the animal looked healthy) and it was listed as T. blondi for $250. Obviously it wasn't blondi and there was no way I would pay that much for a 3"+ stirmi. I tried letting the owner of the shop know that it wasn't blondi, but actually stirmi, but he wasn't having any of that and told me that the person that they bought it from insisted that $250 was the going rate for this T. I ended up taking the T, which i suspect to be frmale, as part of a deal for some recent offspring of mine. So, I just assumed it was stirmi, but something about it just looks a bit different from the other stirmi that I haved worked with. Although it doesn't really show up in the crappy cell phone pics, It is quite leggy, has more of a deep, rosie-red hue, and appears more fuzzy than other stirmi. It is also VERY skittish and a hell of a hair kicker. It is at that age where the pale feet begin to disappear and I can't tell if the back two feet are just unmarked or if they have just lost the pale markings. They do seem to have some residual pale markings though, and I know that in apophysis that I have worked with in the past, the back legs are the first to lose their pink markings. This, plus the fact that the person that the dealer bought from told them that $250 was a fair price just has me curious. I'm sure that I'm just reading too much in to it and it's just a plain old stirmi, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MetalMan2004]

I'm no expert in this but the hairs go past the knee which I believe means its not stirmi (at least in adults. I'm not sure about juvies). I can't venture a guess any further than that.

 

[sdsnybny]

Cant tell for sure by the pic but looks like it has long hairs on the patella? If so it's a T. blondie the only one of the three Theraphosa with hair there

 

[KezyGLA]

Stirmi

They have hairy femurs when young.

 

[Thistles]

They're all fuzzy as slings. Blondi don't have any light feet, apophysis have all light feet and stirmi have light front 2 sets of feet. You are right that apophysis lose the back foot coloring first, so maybe you're lucky. It'll be obvious on an adult by leg shape and coloring.

 

[Atrox084]

Definitely not blondi as she has the light feet, and she's still young enough that the setae on the patella won't matter. I figured stirmi too. Like I said, I'm no expert and there was just something a little fishy about this one and I wanted to get a more seasoned keeper's opinion. Especially if I ever decided to attempt breeding in the future I'd want to be 100% positive on the species first. The fact that the dealer was asking $250 seems weird to me. That means that they knew that blondi was rare enough these days to warrant such a steep price, and yet didn't know enough to tell them apart by the pink tarsus. And it's not like these people are completely T illiterate. I would think that would be fairly basic knowledge these days.

 

[Nightstalker47]

View attachment 248304 So I should preface this by first saying that I am not a T expert, but actually a reptile guy. That said, I have always had a soft spot for the big, itchy, NW, terrestrials and have always kept one or two theraphosa sp. on display in my HOT room. Anyway, I recently saw this spider for sale at a local reptile dealer (I know, I wouldn't normally buy a T from a reptile dealer, but the animal looked healthy) and it was listed as T. blondi for $250. Obviously it wasn't blondi and there was no way I would pay that much for a 3"+ stirmi. I tried letting the owner of the shop know that it wasn't blondi, but actually stirmi, but he wasn't having any of that and told me that the person that they bought it from insisted that $250 was the going rate for this T. I ended up taking the T, which i suspect to be frmale, as part of a deal for some recent offspring of mine. So, I just assumed it was stirmi, but something about it just looks a bit different from the other stirmi that I haved worked with. Although it doesn't really show up in the crappy cell phone pics, It is quite leggy, has more of a deep, rosie-red hue, and appears more fuzzy than other stirmi. It is also VERY skittish and a hell of a hair kicker. It is at that age where the pale feet begin to disappear and I can't tell if the back two feet are just unmarked or if they have just lost the pale markings. They do seem to have some residual pale markings though, and I know that in apophysis that I have worked with in the past, the back legs are the first to lose their pink markings. This, plus the fact that the person that the dealer bought from told them that $250 was a fair price just has me curious. I'm sure that I'm just reading too much in to it and it's just a plain old stirmi, but any help would be greatly appreciated. View attachment 248299 View attachment 248302 View attachment 248303

It's definitely not a T.blondi, they don't have any pink coloration on the tarsus even as slings.

Doesn't look to be T. Apophysis either, it's likely just a juvenile T.stirmi. They have the pink feet as juvies on the four front set of legs.

 

[mconnachan]

It's definitely a stirmi, for all the reasons given by informed members. Yeah I can't add any more than what's been said from @Nightstalker47 and @KezyGLA . Enjoy her, my favourite of all the Theraphosa.

 

[Atrox084]

Thanks for the replies. I figured she was definitely stirmi as well, just wanted to defer to a more experienced eye for a positive ID considering it came from a reptile dealer that had her mislabeled in the first place. By the way, the first pic is of her in the container that she was being kept in at the shop and not how I currently keep her.