Urticating Hair Types by Genus

[spideyspinneret78]

I'm trying to find.a current chart that lists urticating hair types by genus. I've found several online but they're quite old and aren't up to date on taxonomic info. Last July I got a Theraphosinae sp. Rio Shanao sling and I'm kind of obsessed about narrowing down which genus it may belong to. I know that I'm far from an expert, but it would be interesting to at least start narrowing things down a little by process of elimination. I managed to snag its last molt before it was completely destroyed and managed to get a look at its urticating setae under my dissecting scope. I can see type 1 urticating hairs, but I'm not sure if there are more types that I'm missing. I apologize for the potato quality of the photos- it wasn't easy trying to get a decent photo through the scope. You'll need to zoom in on the image to get a better view of the hairs. I took a photo of the actual spider today, and it was VERY fast. Oddly enough as it's been growing (at a very slow rate) it looks less and less like the one known photo of these spiders that's been circulating online. I'm aware that this is a juvenile and that its colors may change. It loves to burrow and prefers moist substrate. Very quick and skittish. It almost reminds me of what Cyclosternum slings/ juveniles look like, but again I'm no expert. I'm including a photo of the urticating setae under the scope and of the spider itself...the little bugger is very quick so the photo is slightly blurry. I'd love to hear your opions on any of this, especially if any of you have in depth experience.

 

[A guy]

I don't think urticating hairs will be enough to narrow it down. From what I've seen and from the people that I've talked to, it's the palpal bulbs of males and spermathecae characteristics of female(although not a strong enough factor in some situations)
that you would need to look into.

 

[Tbone192]

I'm trying to find.a current chart that lists urticating hair types by genus. I've found several online but they're quite old and aren't up to date on taxonomic info. Last July I got a Theraphosinae sp. Rio Shanao sling and I'm kind of obsessed about narrowing down which genus it may belong to. I know that I'm far from an expert, but it would be interesting to at least start narrowing things down a little by process of elimination. I managed to snag its last molt before it was completely destroyed and managed to get a look at its urticating setae under my dissecting scope. I can see type 1 urticating hairs, but I'm not sure if there are more types that I'm missing. I apologize for the potato quality of the photos- it wasn't easy trying to get a decent photo through the scope. You'll need to zoom in on the image to get a better view of the hairs. I took a photo of the actual spider today, and it was VERY fast. Oddly enough as it's been growing (at a very slow rate) it looks less and less like the one known photo of these spiders that's been circulating online. I'm aware that this is a juvenile and that its colors may change. It loves to burrow and prefers moist substrate. Very quick and skittish. It almost reminds me of what Cyclosternum slings/ juveniles look like, but again I'm no expert. I'm including a photo of the urticating setae under the scope and of the spider itself...the little bugger is very quick so the photo is slightly blurry. I'd love to hear your opions on any of this, especially if any of you have in depth experience. View attachment 495325 View attachment 495326

I too have been searching for a list of UrS for each genera. Might have to get real spicy with it and dig through some papers. I know that Vitalius possess type I,II, and III UrS so maybe Nhandu is the same? Brachypelma possess type I and III.

Not for ID but so I can write out datasets including UrS types.

 

[viper69]

UrS used to identify all Ts into genera- not a thing

 

[spideyspinneret78]

I'm sorry, I don't think I was very clear on what I meant. I'm well aware that it takes more than urticating hair types to identify a tarantula. What I'm trying to do is narrow things down a little, and just asking what everyone else sees out of interest. The spider is still very small and I don't have much information available, so I'm just trying to use what I can see in this point in time to delve deeper.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

I'm sorry, I don't think I was very clear on what I meant. I'm well aware that it takes more than urticating hair types to identify a tarantula. What I'm trying to do is narrow things down a little, and just asking what everyone else sees out of interest. The spider is still very small and I don't have much information available, so I'm just trying to use what I can see in this point in time to delve deeper.

For examining urticating hairs you will need a compound microscope to make sure you see all types that could be present. I can see the shape of type 1 in the photo, but can't determine if type 3 also appears.

What I do to help me identify to genus level is head over to the World Spider Catalog, copy a list of a known genera, then start crossing off the ones that are obviously not it. Narrowing down the full list of known genera will be a quick exercise because you know based on the presence of type 1 urticating hair at least, you know you can cross off any genera that come from Africa or Asia as well as the New World arboreal genera. Then once I have a smaller list to choose from, I start downloading and studying the documents that have a diagnosis for the genus, and finally I can get to work. With time and practice the process goes faster, and you will also figure out that trying to identify immature spiders to any taxonomic rank other than subfamily or tribe is a waste of time because the anatomy is not fully developed.