What does "BIG" mean?

[Stefan2209]

Dear friends,

i know you will have troubles to believe, when i tell you there are bad people around, as you are all good people.

There ARE bad people, people which are acusing guys like my to be lying about sizes, guys who are ignorant, guys who say something like:

"This and that species doesn´t get any bigger than this..."

It´s really a bad and mean world today.

So, here we go, let´s all show what "big" means. No mirrors, no wires and no net.

This is Phoneutria reidyi, an adult female caught in the Peruvian Amazon region. The spider has more than 15cm (6") leg span and close to 5cm (2") body length.

Before questions arise: OF COURSE THE SPIDER IS DEAD! I DON´T RECOMMEND HANDLING OF PHONEUTRIA!
(Or any any spider at all...)

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Gsc]

That's NOT "big"...Thats HUGE!!! Great pics!

 

[cacoseraph]

i have found that in the centipede world specimens often exceed specifications. sometimes by ~50%. i wouldn't be surprised if the same happens in the spider world for some species. then you get people who have only read about something or seen the "normal" adult size and don't have very good imaginations =P


That spider is just amazing! cool cool pics man

 

[Stefan2209]

Hi guys,

thanks, i´m pretty glad you second my opinion.

Caco, to my opinion you´re right on the money:

In general people don´t know anything and are quick to come up with definitions of "standard"-sizes which are complete bull. The deeper i get into Ctenidae the more i come to the opinion that i don´t even know the maximum size potential of species that are since long in breed in Europe.

Most captive bred offspring don´t grow up to that sizes that wild caught specimen can achieve, which i take for just unknown factors influencing growth. I´m since close to two years working on the evaluation of this factors and have raised single specimen that were at least close to the size of wild caughts.
However, i know of a bunch of people around here that just state such sizes would be pure lies by people who wanted to make themselfes "important".

I can´t express how annoyed, frustrated and just fed up i am by such stupid behaviour. The pictured spider is not even the biggest i´ve seen.

A buddy of mine imported an adult Ancylometes male back in 2005 that was even more massive and had a leg span close to 18cm (7")!!!

Nevertheless, here around guys keep telling you (even if you show them living specimen) "uhh, they can´t get that big".

Sure, go ahead.

What else to tell such ingnorant people.

I herewith want to invite ANYBODY to post pictures of specimens, regardless of species, that are just pretty big for their according species.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[Drachenjager]

i have found that in the centipede world specimens often exceed specifications. sometimes by ~50%. i wouldn't be surprised if the same happens in the spider world for some species. then you get people who have only read about something or seen the "normal" adult size and don't have very good imaginations =P


That spider is just amazing! cool cool pics man

you mean like the SHC only getting to 6-8" ROTFLOL

 

[beetleman]

that is 1 HUGE baby:clap: very impressive!

 

[Crotalus]

Do you want to change size of this species inb the litterature based on one single specimen?
I dont think I understand what you mean.

 

[Stefan2209]

Do you want to change size of this species inb the litterature based on one single specimen?
I dont think I understand what you mean.

Hi Lelle,

nope.

There´s apparently NO problem with literature as far as i´m concerned:

Literature is listing leg spans for species like P. fera or P. reidyi from 5" to 8" depending on the source you ask.

i´ve personally seen specimen from 4" in adult to more than 7" in adult and i haven´t seen it all, so i´m pretty fine with this.

I have to admit, however, i have severe problems with people who tell me "they don´t get any bigger than this" and referr to specimen that have just something like 4" to 5".

Those people don´t have any personal experience, haven´t ever been in the natural environments but THE MOST IDIOTIC point: apparently they are not even able to read (or understand) literature.

Not more, not less. Everything else is pretty fine.

The probelm in detail is German keepers that don´t know how to keep their spiders and won´t accept the fact that those ridicolous small sizes generated in captive raised spiders are not just the "maximum" that species can achieve.

As this debate is getting more and more nuclear, i just wanted to give a graphic example what can be "standard" for nature.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[syndicate]

wow man.that is a huge spider!thanks for sharing pics.

 

[Bothrops]

Very impressive. I'd be feared of that spider ;P

 

[Stefan2209]

Hi,

NO NEED FOR ANY THANKS!

I just want to show the size of spiders i keep here to educate anybody who might be interested.

This spider is a WILD CAUGHT SPECIMEN, this is how big nature intend them to be.

Anything less is due to bad season (see HÖFER 2000 for reference) or DUE TO BAD KEEPING CONDITIONS.

Just to let anyone know.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[JLDomestics]

In general, people on these forums are ignorant goofs who don't even have a clue. They just like to open their mouths because they have the keyboard at their fingertips. That is the downside of online forums, you just can't escape moronic people.

 

[P. Novak]

Wow Stefan!

That thing is huge and impressive! Great job on proving those bad people wrong haha.

Why would such a big spider need such potent venom though?

 

[Crotalus]

Hi,

NO NEED FOR ANY THANKS!

I just want to show the size of spiders i keep here to educate anybody who might be interested.

This spider is a WILD CAUGHT SPECIMEN, this is how big nature intend them to be.

Anything less is due to bad season (see HÖFER 2000 for reference) or DUE TO BAD KEEPING CONDITIONS.

Just to let anyone know.

Greetings,

Stefan

Theres a number of factors that might play in such as locality, perhaps more then bad captive conditions. I havent read that reference (Hofer 2000), how come he made that conclusion that some captives grew smaller? Of course if you seldom feed the animals they wont grow but I dont think that is what he meant?

 

[Drachenjager]

In general, people on these forums are ignorant goofs who don't even have a clue. They just like to open their mouths because they have the keyboard at their fingertips. That is the downside of online forums, you just can't escape moronic people.

hmmm i agree with you about ignorance. But you left off arrogant. I dont however think he was refering to this forum . It felt to me like some peopel he knows in person or another forum... could be wrong tho.

It does seem that people like to try to put nature in a box when it comes to what is out there and how big somethign can be.

 

[Crotalus]

They just like to open their mouths because they have the keyboard at their fingertips. That is the downside of online forums, you just can't escape moronic people.

Yes obviously.

 

[JLDomestics]

Yes obviously.

Point proven.