wild sightings!

[chaoshybrid6]

Hey guys its been a while since I've been on the site but thought you would be interested. Second week in July was driving from Lubbock, TX to Sweetwater, TX and found these guys all over the road walking, there must have been dozens of them. Also curious as to what it is.

 

[Moltar]

What's you're seeing is large numbers of mature males out crusin' for babes. When they hit sexual maturity male tarantulas will start roaming around looking for a mate. I'm not sure if it's a survival mechanism that they do this practically simultaneously or just because all the T's in a certain small locality are from the same sac (or both) but it sure is cool.

Those are probably Aphonopelma anax or Aphonopelma hentzi. I'm not sure which would be more prevalent in that location.

 

[Hobo]

That's cool.

You know, with so many of 'em out and about in the same place, I've always wondered... are they hostile to other, rival males if they run into them? It would make sense to eliminate competition, but it would also make sense to conserve energy and injury by avoiding combat altogether.

Hmmm...

 

[Moltar]

I've never observed it personally but it makes sense to me that they wouldn't waste energy on battle unless they were actually competing directly for the same female, maybe not even then. They seem to just seem to scramble all over each other in the videos i've seen.

 

[chaoshybrid6]

Well thats what I thought at first (cruising for mates), but the area where they were just saw heavy rains due to the passing hurricane so could it also be because the heavy rains flooded them out of their hides? and shouldn't the cruising for mates happen at night since they are nocturnal?

 

[Bill S]

You know, with so many of 'em out and about in the same place, I've always wondered... are they hostile to other, rival males if they run into them? It would make sense to eliminate competition, but it would also make sense to conserve energy and injury by avoiding combat altogether.

Good point. We see adult male (and to a lesser extent immature) A. chalcodes out wandering around here at this time of year. I haven't observed any interaction between males, but it would be interesting to know what happens. The males are still feeding heavily as they wander - we often find them on window ledges at night picking off moths and such. And last week we caught one of the adult males with the intent of breedig him to an adult female we have in a terrarium. He's been eating crickets every day - so would another adult male be a potential food source?

(By the way, the captured adult male mated with the female in the terrarium night before last. The bottom of her burrow comes up to the glass on one side of the terrarium, so we were able to watch her drumming in her burrow in response to his surface drumming during courtship. After mating he pushed her upside down into the mouth of her burrow and made a FAST escape, with her in pursuit. He outdistanced her and got away.)

In response to the above question - we see males out both during the day and the night. We also see adult females sitting just inside the mouths of their burrows in the daytime, especially if it's cloudy or wet. They are not as strictly nocturnal as is often claimed. They avoid the dry heat of day, and are more active at night, but there is some "grey area" here.