the great white tarantula?

[looseyfur]

anyone ever seen or bred or had an albino tarantula?
seen albino bugs before posted someplace but never an albino T.

anyone?

looseyfur

 

[Botar]

I asked about this once before and I believe Code Monkey responded. (Just want to give you credit, CM) Abinism is the absence of pigment. Since T colors are not a result of pigmentation, there are no albino T's. For clarification, I'd have to refer you to CM. In regards to albino insects, I've seen a picture of an albino roach, but it was not an albino. It was a freshly molted B. giganteus and once they harden, they assume their normal colors. Anyone else have any info on the matter of albino insects?

Botar

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I too, have asked this question. And I got the same response as Botar.

But I guess, it would be possible to create one over several years with selective breeding.

Take N. colovosterous (or however you spell it). Get species that have the most white on them. Breed them. Take offspring w/ most white). Breed...

Big Dragonfly

 

[Botar]

Good point Big Dragonfly...

I wonder if you could breed for desired characteristics within the species. Anyone?

Botar

 

[Code Monkey]

Well, I'd have to refer you back to Dr. Breene of the ATS But, yeah, the majority of coloration is due to the way light refracts/reflects with the exoskeleton structure as opposed to pigment (although there is some structures in true spiders that are colored due to pigment as I learned reading Foelix's Biology of Spiders - don't know what, if anything, in Ts is due to pigment).

But, if you could convince your children to take over when you die you could start with light phase N. coloratovillosus as Dragonfly suggests, or even extra white H. maculata, and spend a few decades or more trying to breed for all white/cream. Personally the logistics of selectively breeding new color morphs is more than I would ever want to deal with.

 

[Wade]

There was an extensive, exhausting, and, at times, ugly discussion about this topic on either arachnid world or ats enthusiest (I forget which). Most of the arguing was about what could be considered "albino". Although it was admitted that there were colorless arthropods living in caves, I don't think anyone produced any examples of albanism occuring as a variation. In other words, when arthropods were colorless, it was the norm for that species, and not a mutation, as we usually think of albinos being.

I think SOME of the colors are true colors, like the orange/red on B. smithi for example. Stan Shultz, in the recent ATS Forum wrote about experimenting the possibility of enhancing the coloration of T's using color enhancing foods used by canary breeders. He also suggested that the browns/blacks were probably melanin. If he's right, it would seem that amelanism (albino) would be possible, but has apparently never been observed.

Wade

 

[Martin H.]

Hi,

Originally posted by Wade

... If he's right, it would seem that amelanism (albino) would be possible, but has apparently never been observed.

...time goes on, more people keep Ts, more observations have been done and reported, more articles have been written – also about "albino" Ts or what to call these light/bright coloured speciemens.
e.g. see these very interesting coloured Cyriopagopus schioedtei (photo by Siegfried Huber): >>click here<<
Both nymphs on this photo are from the same eggsack. And here is an article about these strange coloured Cyriopagopus schioedtei slings:

• VON WIRTH, V. (2003): Ungewöhnliche Farbabweichung bei Nymphen von Cyriopagopus schioedtei (Thorell, 1891). DeArGe Mitteilungen 8(5): 30-31.

all the best,
Martin

www.dearge.de
www.spiderpix.com

 

[MrT]

Speaking of Code Monkey ?

Where is he ?

Vacation ?

E

 

[Wade]

Wow...that's certainly an unusual liking spider! I suppose only time will tell if the color will hold.

Like Martin said, the longer we keep and observe these animals, the more things we'll see. Captive breeding will doubtless continue to provide new surprises in the future.

Wade

 

[belewfripp]

If I missed this in someone's prior post forgive me, but a clarification: albinism isn't the absence of pigment, it is the absence of black pigment. A better word is amelanism, but the condition was initially termed albinism because in humans and some other animals (like rats) who are primarily colored with melanin, the result is nearly complete whiteness, hence albinism, from the latin for white. However, you can have albino corn snakes, for example, that are very far from being white, because they, like some other animals, possess red and also a little yellow pigment. So, even if Ts were colored primarily with pigment, you could potentially have an 'albino' tarantula that is not white. Furthermore, you could have a white T that has nothing to do with pigmentation, due to the color coming, like others have said, primarily from cuticular structure rather than pigment.

Adrian

 

[Buspirone]

Originally posted by Botar
I asked about this once before and I believe Code Monkey responded. (Just want to give you credit, CM) Abinism is the absence of pigment. Since T colors are not a result of pigmentation, there are no albino T's. For clarification, I'd have to refer you to CM. In regards to albino insects, I've seen a picture of an albino roach, but it was not an albino. It was a freshly molted B. giganteus and once they harden, they assume their normal colors. Anyone else have any info on the matter of albino insects?

Botar

Since the "albino" roach was brought up here's one of my freshly molted orange heads just to show a pic:

 

[arcane]

Alice Cooper claims to have owned an albino tarantula he found on an Indian burial ground. Now how could a man named "Alice" lie?

 

[Phillip]

Yeah and Ted Nugent claims he never did booze or drugs.

Phil

 

[Longbord1]

everyone is saying that inverts can't be albino but i just saw on tv an albino lobster and it didn't just molt either

 

[Woody]

if there is no pigment in tarantula hair, then what is it that gives it color?

 

[Mendi]

If there is no pigment we wouldn't have the colorful T like A. geniculata, A. versicolor, B. boehmei, C.cyanopubescens, or C. fasciatum... My opinion is there is pigment in the exoskeletons and in the individual components of it. They may not get the colors the conventional way the mammals do, but there color so in my eyes there could be albinos. They are likely extremely rare and they are picked off pretty readily for standing out just like all other albino creatures are.

 

[belewfripp]

As far as current knowledge runs, the colors of tarantulas come from the molecular structure of the exoskeleton. Certain structures absorb/reflect different wavelengths of light, just as certain pigments do, resulting in the colors we see. Pigments may play a role, as others mentioned as a possibility, but it would seem that even if they do, it is a small one.

EDIT: Also remember that tarantula hair is not like ours - it is comprised of the same material that the rest of their exoskeleton is.

Adrian

 

[Woody]

go to
http://www.earthlife.net/chelicerata/s-anatomy.html

it talks about where the color in spiders comes from.

"Spiders get their colour from pigment granules contained in the epithelial cells. Common colours like black, brown, red, orange, and yellow are supplied by a family of pigments called ommochromes. White is the result of light being reflected by guanine crystals and green, Areniella curcubitina is derived from bile pigments such as biliverdin." - www.earthlife.net

besides, i am fairly sure that albinism can be found in all forms of life, including plants.

if what this person stated is true, then how could albimism be absent in tarantulas?

 

[belewfripp]

Interesting stuff, I did not know of those pigments. The question remains, though, do Ts have melanin? If you define albinism as a 'white' animal - which is not always true - then Ts conceivably could be albino. If you define it as a lack of black pigment in general, it could also occur. If you define it as a lack of melanin, which is the condition albinism has become synonymous with in animals such as people and rabbits etc, then Ts would have to have melanin before they could produce an individual that lacked it.

So, maybe there could be albino Ts, maybe not.

Adrian

 

[Phillip]

One problem with the term albino is it doesn't apply to all animals. Snakes for example are not albino they are amelenistic or leucistic ( white with black or blue eyes rather than red or pink ).

The term albino has stuck simply because it was used early on and after it was researched and discovered that it was indeed amel that was correct lots of the old schoolers kept using the old term. Most herpers are guilty of it including myself at times. Also on the amel note not all amels look the same even within the same species. There are lots of variables that come into play including Tyronaise ( spelling ) negative and positive in some species such as the black rats. If a T positive is put with a T negative they produce normal babies as the allels controling the amel trait are different. T positive tends to be a brighter animal with bold markings where negative is a more washed or pastel looking animal.

Along the same line of thinking if there were morphs of Ts to start popping up I doubt they would be albino in the true sense as the way they get their coloration is different from humans.

Phil