Costa Rica Journal – Pt. 3 – Mystery T

Windycity · Nov 16, 2003

I described a trip to Costa Rica in a couple of previous posts where we saw some outstanding examples of M. mesomelas in the rain forest during a night walk. Well, we also saw another species of tarantula which was not obviously identifiable, at least not to my relatively novice eyes.

He was seen in the high elevation cloud forest at the Arenal Volcano National Park in north central Costa Rica. This tarantula appeared to be arboreal and was found 5 to 6 feet up the trunk of a large tree. His size was approximately 4 to 5 inches across, had an overall dark grey coloration with a light chevron patterning on his abdomen. Bobby, the forest guide we were with, said he had seen them occasionally but not nearly as frequently as the M. mesomelas which are quite common in the area.

Any ideas?

metallica · Nov 16, 2003

are you sure it's a T?
can't it be a Barychelidae?

Crotalus · Nov 16, 2003

Looks like a ctenid of some kind

/Lelle

metallica · Nov 16, 2003

one of those funnel webbing thingies yes!

Crotalus · Nov 16, 2003

It looks more like a true spider then a mygalomorph
Metallica, ctenids are wandering spiders, Phoneutria (which is not), Cupennius etc
Most mygals dont climb trees

/Lelle

Windycity · Nov 16, 2003

I had no idea what it was. I just assumed it was a tarantula due to its size and it's big hairy butt and the faint seemani like strips on its legs. I couldn't get a good enough view of its dental work to verify if it ate it's dinner with a fork or with pliers.

MrFeexit · Nov 16, 2003

hehheh Fork or pliers. Looks like it would be a fast sucker to! Good to see ya back Windy I was wondering where the heck you had been. The journal is great, thanks for taking the time to do that. It sounds like quite an adventure!!

Immortal_sin · Nov 16, 2003

great pics...thanks for posting them!

Longbord1 · Nov 16, 2003

it almost looks like a big wolf spider and it could very well be im sure there is such a thing as a goliath wolfspider

maybe u stumbled upon a new spider?
any way its a cool looking spider

mike

Crotalus · Nov 16, 2003

Originally posted by Longbord1
it almost looks like a big wolf spider and it could very well be im sure there is such a thing as a goliath wolfspider

maybe u stumbled upon a new spider?
any way its a cool looking spider

mike

Wolfspiders dont climb in trees (I might be wrong), they are mostly terrestrial burrowing species while ctenids roam around both on ground and in the trees. Largest ctenids eat frogs and smaller lizards so some species grows very large.

/Lelle

Vayu Son · Nov 17, 2003

><

monantony... looks like a dragonfly head to me, in the beasts maw.

-V

Windycity · Nov 17, 2003

Monantony,

Those are interesting looking spiders. What are the defining characteristics of diplurids and ctenids? It looks like they get pretty large unless that’s a midget grasshopper being munched.

metallica · Nov 17, 2003

thanks lelle! another lesson learned!

Lopez · Nov 17, 2003

Originally posted by Crotalus
Wolfspiders dont climb in trees (I might be wrong), they are mostly terrestrial burrowing species while ctenids roam around both on ground and in the trees. Largest ctenids eat frogs and smaller lizards so some species grows very large.

/Lelle

You are quite right, wolf spiders don't generally climb trees. Looks very Ctenid to me!

belewfripp · Nov 17, 2003

Ctenids are aranaemorphs, there is a similarly-named mygalomorph family though, the ctenizids, which sometimes confuses me when I'm not paying attention.

Adrian

Costa Rica Journal – Pt. 3 – Mystery T

Windycity

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