Stygophrynus?

[NotreallyJeff]

I recently went to a reptile expo and found a few of these whip spiders. I genuinly cannot find anything about husbandry for anything in Stygophrynus. Now, the ones I bought where marked as Stygophrynus ssp. so I'm not sure exactly what I purchased.

Do I treat em like Paraphrynus? Acanthophrynus? I'm not sure. Maybe Stygophrynus is an invalid name and there's actually loads of information about them but people call them something else, or maybe I am just really bad at trying to gather information.

Any advice helps.
Thanks for reading,

Jeff

 

[wizentrop]

Stygophrynus species are all Catageus now:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ith_a_reappraisal_of_the_genera_in_the_family

My experience with one of the species is negative (didn't survive for me). @Banshee05 has a much more positive experience.

 

[Edan bandoot]

I recently went to a reptile expo and found a few of these whip spiders. I genuinly cannot find anything about husbandry for anything in Stygophrynus. Now, the ones I bought where marked as Stygophrynus ssp. so I'm not sure exactly what I purchased.

Do I treat em like Paraphrynus? Acanthophrynus? I'm not sure. Maybe Stygophrynus is an invalid name and there's actually loads of information about them but people call them something else, or maybe I am just really bad at trying to gather information.

Any advice helps.
Thanks for reading,

Jeff

Can you send a picture of them I've never heard of the species

 

[NotreallyJeff]

Can you send a picture of them I've never heard of the species

Sorry about the poor camera quality. I have no way of getting photos off of my better camera at the moment so this will have to suffice for now.

 

[Banshee05]

This specimen looks like a Catageus species, formally known as Stygophrynus.
As you can see here, I do keep various species with different success.

C. orientalis is for ME the easiest one; I do now keep them since the 4-5 generations, before I described the specie new to since from Sulawesi.
I think generally the trigger with this genus is, keeping them cooler as the rest, most of them stay now it my place at 24-27°C and nto 27-30°C as the rest. C. orientalis seems to tolerat higher temperature, the Malaysian and Javain stuff imported in the last years more often, died all at my place when keeping them warmer. It was also an issue that I just got very huge adults, now, with another import, I just took all the small species, and they are now doing pretty well without any looses at 24°C Malaysia and 26°C Java species. The stuff from Thailand, randamly and in low quantities brought in, are maybe different, I can't tell excatly, as I did never got any from the "legal" imports, just a pair from other scientists collected them by themself, and they are doing great at higher temperature since a long time, and I am waiting every day for a hatch of the eggsac.
Suming up, other species are much easier and make less stress, but this is maybe also a problem of the success with my other whips, as my breeding rooms are generally heated up a lot, if you haven't such as room, it may goes much better with less temperature and high humidity. If you have the choice, start with others, most of the phrynids are EASY, Damon species as well.

 

[Edan bandoot]

Sorry about the poor camera quality. I have no way of getting photos off of my better camera at the moment so this will have to suffice for now.

Very leggy!

 

[NotreallyJeff]

This specimen looks like a Catageus species, formally known as Stygophrynus.
As you can see here, I do keep various species with different success.

C. orientalis is for ME the easiest one; I do now keep them since the 4-5 generations, before I described the specie new to since from Sulawesi.
I think generally the trigger with this genus is, keeping them cooler as the rest, most of them stay now it my place at 24-27°C and nto 27-30°C as the rest. C. orientalis seems to tolerat higher temperature, the Malaysian and Javain stuff imported in the last years more often, died all at my place when keeping them warmer. It was also an issue that I just got very huge adults, now, with another import, I just took all the small species, and they are now doing pretty well without any looses at 24°C Malaysia and 26°C Java species. The stuff from Thailand, randamly and in low quantities brought in, are maybe different, I can't tell excatly, as I did never got any from the "legal" imports, just a pair from other scientists collected them by themself, and they are doing great at higher temperature since a long time, and I am waiting every day for a hatch of the eggsac.
Suming up, other species are much easier and make less stress, but this is maybe also a problem of the success with my other whips, as my breeding rooms are generally heated up a lot, if you haven't such as room, it may goes much better with less temperature and high humidity. If you have the choice, start with others, most of the phrynids are EASY, Damon species as well.

Thank you for all of this valuable information. I have been keeping Amblypigi for a few years, so this isn't a starter species for me. I can definitely keep them cooler, so that isn't an issue.

May I ask how large those bigger Catageus that you mentioned got for you? I want to try to narrow down what genus I now possess.

Again thank you so much for all the informaltion,

Jeff

 

[Banshee05]

C. longispina is, for me so far, the biggest species, with a body size of approx. 2,5-3cm and a leg span of about 20cm or even more, quite huge compared to all the other species of the genus I have seen in vivo.

 

[mantisfan101]

Never thought I’d see the day when you could find catageus so easily at a reptile expo

 

[NotreallyJeff]

C. longispina is, for me so far, the biggest species, with a body size of approx. 2,5-3cm and a leg span of about 20cm or even more, quite huge compared to all the other species of the genus I have seen in vivo.

The specimens I've aquired have a body length of about 1cm to 1.5cm at the moment.

I've also noticed that they all seem to spend a fair ammount of time on the ground. Do any of your Catageus do that in your collection?

 

[NotreallyJeff]

Never thought I’d see the day when you could find catageus so easily at a reptile expo

I was absolutely thrilled when I saw Amblypigi that where not Damon sp. They only had 4 of the Catageus sp and one P. carolynae. I bought 3 of the Catageus and the P. carolynae, and those where the only Whip Spiders at the expo.

I consider it an honour to own these little gems.

 

[schmiggle]

Never thought I’d see the day when you could find catageus so easily at a reptile expo

Yeah seriously, where are these coming from? Is Catageus entering the US hobby in a big way, or is this a fluke?

 

[mantisfan101]

Yeah seriously, where are these coming from? Is Catageus entering the US hobby in a big way, or is this a fluke?

I think there might be some scattered imports here and there. I know a pet store in cali that had some a couple weeks back

 

[Banshee05]

The specimens I've aquired have a body length of about 1cm to 1.5cm at the moment.

I've also noticed that they all seem to spend a fair ammount of time on the ground. Do any of your Catageus do that in your collection?

yes, but mostly dehydrated WC species. Normally they do not sit on the ground.

 

[NotreallyJeff]

yes, but mostly dehydrated WC species. Normally they do not sit on the ground.

Alright, thanks for the info.

Are you aware if this genus is communal? Or are they better off on their own?

Sorry for all the questions by the way. I just want to make sure I give these animals the care that they deserve.

Thanks again,
Jeff

 

[mantisfan101]

I wouldn’t keep any amblypygid communally, especially a species as rare as this...they’ll tolerate each other, with some being more tolerable than others, but eventually something bad usually happens