What Idiothele mira care experiences

[k2power]

I guess having a somewhat rare species has its drawbacks. I am unsure whether to keep it as an arid species (I currently am since it is from S. Africa ) and is it considered a slow grower. Mine is growing very slowly but has a good appetite. It used to have a trapdoor but gave that up 6 months ago. What is the typical adult size? Thanks.

 

[Tarac]

Mine is not so long in my collection, a little over a year- so not yet mature, but female. Not the fastest growing OW species as you pointed out. I kept mine like an average sling at first and have gradually gone dryer as she put on enough size to add a water source. Since mine isn't mature I couldn't say how big she will be with certainty but I have seen a really little mature male (about 2.5") and heard that females are fairly tiny as well- 3-4" or so. Mine never did the trapdoor thing which was kind of disappointing. She is outside her den a lot but she is shy and darts back in if you disturb her at all. Very beautiful though, one of the most beautiful Ts out there IMO.

Just FYI- like most places, South Africa has a lot of variable ecosystems so it's not really easy to qualify as being a "wet" or "dry" place predominantly like Chile which has an obvious geographic feature that dictates the rainfall almost entirely. Generally, South Africa is considered (by botanists and horticulturalist, who care a great deal about rainfall patterns) to be a Mediterranean climate- that is, rainy in the winter and dry in the summer. If you try to grow a lot of South African bulbs in your garden, you are probably living in Southern Europe or California (though there are a few we can grow here in Florida where it is wet wet wet most of the time).

South Africa is interesting because compared to the actual tropical belt which includes the Congo rain forest, it is far more diverse counter to what one might think when considering global rain forests on all of the other continents with such features. Correspondingly, it has many small, isolated and unique ecosystems with many highly endemic organisms just like montane tropical forests in the rest of the world. I am not sure exactly where in South Africa I. mira is from but I wouldn't be so quick to generalize care based on the very loose label of being "South African." It could be very dry or very wet or it could be Mediterranean. Hard to say. Perhaps one of our expert members has more natural history data for this species? I'd love to see it myself, they are not all that well characterized in the hobby even though we can now keep and breed them without much issue it seems.

 

[Ceratogyrus]

These spiders are found in an area called KwaZulu Natal, very close to Mozambique. Pretty warm and wet majority of the time, so far from desert species. Summer temps up to maybe 35 degrees and winter down to around 10-15 degrees at the lowest point. Live in normal bushveld area with rainfall through the summer months usually.

 

[Bosing]

I have kept and bred the I. mira on dry substrate all year round. No problems encountered... I am actually trying to breed four second generation females now, so... goodluck to me. =)

 

[k2power]

I am keeping mine like a Brachypelma/Aphonopelma. It seems that is OK. I have had mine for about 8 months and it has hardly grown it seems but eats regularly. Very Aphonopelma in that regard but my Brachypelmas are blowing it away in growth rate. What are the the sizes of the breeder females and males?