Vietnam Bird Eater tarantula?

[rknralf]

I stopped by the pet shop on Friday and saw they had a tarantula labeled as a Vietnam Bird Eater. Does anyone have any idea what it might possibly be? It was definately old world (almost appearred bald), was shiney black in color, and had some lighter/darker tiger stripping on the abdomen.
When I got there, it was going into the death curl, all dried up, and I made them give it fresh water. Its amazing to me that a pet shop would spend money on an animal and not provide it even the most basic care of fresh water. I called yesterday and they said it was looking better, but I'm thinking of bringing it home. I'm just not sure what it could be though, and I've never had any Asian tarantulas. I've heard they are fast and mean, and for only the advanced keeper.

 

[Devildoll]

H. minax .... Thai Blacks i've heard refered to as that, but i'm not sure if thats accurate.
check out www.arachnocenter.com
paul sells vietnamese birdeaters and they are definatly Thai blacks....... H. minax.

 

[Botar]

H. minax would be my guess as well. Does anyone have any experience with an H. minax? That is one that is on my current wish list.

 

[King_Looey]

H. Minax are evil little buggers, known to be one of the most aggressive spiders out.

 

[Devildoll]

Evil realy isn't the appropriate word.....
"EVIL!!!!!!!!" is a bit better.
really fast and very mean. i love mine.

 

[Wade]

Here's a tarantula I purchased as "Vietnamese earthtiger"

Photo by Art Evans

 

[rknralf]

THATS IT!

Wade,
Thats the same tarantula I saw at the Pet Shop. It is a beautiful spider!
Is that H. minax? Do you have a positive ID? I would love to add one to my tarantula group.

 

[Botar]

Here is a picture of the H minax that I'm talking about. I don't know if the other one is a color variation or what, but the ones I've seen have always been solid black.

 

[Botar]

Sorry about that, the download of the photo didn't take.

 

[Haploman]

vietnamese earth tiger?????

hey wade,
that T you have posted looks to me like a haplopelma schmidti "note the mustache on either side of the celicharae--(I think i spelled it right) Haplopelma minax does not have a mustache
Haplopelma costale, haplopelma sp./ selenecosmia haiana/-- chinese black earth tiger (which could be a darker morph of the H. schmidti has the unique mustache both are truly evil but you got to love them:?

 

[Wade]

The tarantula in my post is almost identical to one pictured on Rick West's site, labeled as "Haplopelma sp. from Vietnam" or something to that effect, at least last time I looked. I picked two of them up at a reptile show several years ago. They seem to thrive in "swampy" conditions. They're beautiful, but I almost never see them, they dig deep burrows with two openings (maybe an artifact of captivity?).

I don't think it has an official name beyond "Haplopelma sp", so it's undescribed right now, as far as I know. I'll have to go back to the site and see if any updates have occured. Simmilar in care and temperment to H. minax and H. lividum. Common names that end in "earth tiger" and "bird eater" are less than useless since they tend to be applied to many unrelated spiders.

Wade

 

[Haploman]

search for Volker Von Wirth

Hey Wade,
Search for Volker Von Wirth the asian species expert get his email address from the petbugs.com email him and attach the pic He will tell you what species that is really, Hes the one who described the Haplopelma schmidti

 

[Wade]

Good idea...maybe I can finally get a name on those things!

Thanks

Wade

 

[Haploman]

Haplopelam schmidti pic attached

Wade,
You cannot go by common names (sorry i forgot to mention) but I attached a pic of my old female the pic is of a H schmidti (yes she is mating with a male. My female is at my brothers house waiting for her to dump her eggsack

 

[Haploman]

sorry here it is

:} the file said it was too big here another to try

 

[Haploman]

comparing your pic

it seems by comparing your pic wade and mine, yours could be the darker morph of H schmidti or the Haplopelma Sp.--chinese black tiger which Volker Von Wirth is awaiting to describe
this is what I learned in order to find out if it is the same species. They are now mating or mated a haplopelma schmidti female with a male haplopelma Sp (chinese black tiger) or vice versa. so when a female dump her sack, those offsprings should be fertile. If they are fertile then they are the same species. now if they are infertile then they are all sterile, therefore said species haplopelma Sp.--is now a new species and hence they are given a new name. But we are stuck with this haplopelma sp name
I think this what Volker Von Wirth is doin right now
Volker where the hell are you lmao

I think you got there a chinese black tiger
Heres the first name they described that unique species
selenecosmia haiana/ haplopelma sp. then they changed it to a haplopelma sp.
sorry for all the posts

 

[xenesthis]

Vietnamese Tiger

Fellow hobbyists:

Wade's post and photo by Art shows "Haplopelma costale" the "Thai tiger Beauty" one of the rarest Ts in in our hobby.

H. minax is a stocky black velvet T seldom imported.
H. aureopilosum is commonly imported and mis-identified as "H. minax" by dealers/importers. It is smaller and has foxy red hairs under legs 1 and 2 and has reddish-orange trim of hairs around the carapace.
"Cyriopagopus paganus" in the trade is actually a Haplopema species that should be listed as Haplopelma sp. "longipedum". It is a large, stockly, white-tan leg striped burrowing species that is overall battleship grey to black with a muted chevron patteron on its abdomen.
H. schmidti "Chinese Gold" and the Haplopelma sp. "Chinese Black" are very large, stocky and thick-legged species with a distinct large, white "mustache" along the mandibles.
H. albostriatum is a battleship grey to black species with white-tan leg striping and on the small side, to 4.5" max. It has several color, geographical variations.

This should clear up the confusion about SE Asian species.

Todd
www.tarantulaspiders.com

 

[minax]

Thanks Todd !

Your info. about Asian T's is greatly appreciated!
Minax.

 

[MrDeranged]

Great information Todd. Thank you for it. Hopefully it will clear up some of our identification problems.

Scott

 

[Theraphosid Research Team]

Re: Vietnamese Tiger

Hi!

Someone called for me???

Todd cleared up the Situation but with one exception. The species on the picture from Wade looks similar to a Species which is very seldom in the Petrade and which is sold as "Haplopelma costale". I know the Typeseries of Hapl. costale (it's actually in my collection) and I also possess males and females of the species shown by Wade. I can definitely say that Wade's Species has nothing to do with the real Haplopelma costale. This Species hasn't even something to do with the Genus Haplopelma! I can't actually say to which Genus this Species belongs nor which is the next relative! I'll call this Species Ornithoctoninae sp. for the time being!BTW, are you sure that there is really a clear white mustache above the scopula of this Ornithoctoninae sp., John? My doesn't have a mustache like it is in Haplopelma schmidti and the related Chinese/Vietnam Taranatulas!
The tarantula which is shown on Botar's picture seems to me the real Haplopelma minax, a uniform dark blackish Haplopelma with a moss-grenish Carapax (after moult) and with a very inconspicuous abdominal pattern. As Todd pointed out,there is another Species with an orange hairfringe on the outside of the Patella and Tibia of the Legs which has phylogenetically nothing nearer to do with Haplopelma minax (see attachement below, pic: Guy Tansley) but which is often sold under this name by the pettrade. For this undescribed Species I've created the "working name" Haplopelma sp. "aureopilosum", but please recognise that it isn't offical described untill now.The same is valid for the Haplopelma sp. "longipedum",which is often sold as "Cyriopagopus paganus" and which is in reality the Sistertaxon of Haplopelma lividum,maybe only a Subspecies [I keep 89 Hybrids at the moment (Mother= Hapl. sp. "longipedum", Father= Hapl. lividum) and in 4 Years, when they will be adult, I'll make re-crossbreeding experiments with Hapl. lividum - we will see if they will be fertil (=one Species) or infertil (=two Species - following the Hennigian Species-Concept).
BTW, H. schmidti "Chinese Gold" and the Haplopelma sp. "Chinese Black" (which was described as Selenocosmia hainana by Liang et. al. in 1999) are also VERY near related to each other (to my opinion they are only color variations of one Species). I'll also try crossbreeding experiments with this "Species" in the next Year to clear the Species status.

Cheers, Volker