Arana Polita - Chicken Spider Diary

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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Instead of a topic of speculation, I've decided to share some gems I received from Peru. But before anyone asks I am not selling these. I plan to raise, observe, and hopefully breed them. This topic is for the general increase of knowledge for everyone of this species. For those who ask questions I will do my best to answer and find out more information through their behavior. I will continue to post pics and updates.




Recently Peru has been open to legal export (http://www.cites.org/eng/notif/2009/E053.pdf) and the trade has seen an increase in Peruvian tarantulas. I myself made a previous order from a collector in Iquitos. I began to chat with him about a second order and asked if he ever found tarantulas in the Ixtapa basin, and other areas he legally collects from that were found communally. I was aware that the chicken spider had been sighted all the way up to the Iquitos area. He responded yes, but he always assumed they were Pamphobeteus antinous. Ecstatic that these tarantulas were found in unprotected areas and legal to collect with the proper permit I began to plan an order.

Needless to say well over a year passed before the proper permits were acquired and the collecting trip was planned (several months of heavy rains and flooding hindered his efforts as well as government reorganizations of certain departments).

He found several burrows in the area (with many burrows containing more than 20 tarantulas), but focused on two that were found 18 feet apart. He collected 25 (as the permit indicated). 21 from one burrow (1 adult female, 1 large juvenile, and 19 slings of various sizes), and 4 from another (1 adult, 1 sub adult, and 2 juveniles of different ages). There were more in the burrow containing the large juveniles and adults, but he left them.

Finally the shipment was sent, cleared by Canadian customs and I received them... a day later than expected. Nervously I opened the box that had been delayed for a day in the city of origin. The thermal pack was cold. In horror I removed the containers. Each one was nonresponsive.

I then also recalled that much further south in the Madre de Dios Region where the Chicken Spider is also found polar winds can drop the temperatures to close to freezing for several days, and if what I had was the Chicken Spider their shocking temperatures in the box may be something they may be able to tolerate for short amounts of time.

Having received cold orders in the past, and hoping my theory of the polar winds was correct I knew I had to let them heat up slowly. So I waited a couple hours and most started to be responsive. At this point I picked off a number of fly larvae parasites on the tarantulas (the largest female had at least 10 on her). Thankfully I have predatory mites (H.miles) at my disposal.

After 3 hours all were responsive yet lethargic.

Using two large rubbermaid containers, each with a large cave, smaller hiding spots and multiple bottle caps for water sources (now with rocks unlike in the picture), I transferred the two groups to their respective homes. I prekilled a number of crickets (actually I use a technique where you remove the head/front segment from the body, but not completely so the legs still move and twitch) and fed them to them, which all the adults and subadults happily took.

Surprisingly, unlike the Pamphobeteus, who's urticating hairs gave me terrible week long reactions and made my hands feel like they were on fire, this species has little to no reaction with my skin at all.

After quarantine I have an 80 gallon for the mother and her slings, and a 6'x2x'1.5' tank I am setting up for the group of 4.

Here are pictures of them in the wild, followed by 3 pictures of them in the containers I have for them. The containers are 3'x2'x1.5' and are currently in my bug room at 80'F. The excessive leaves and moss are from my predatory mite cultivation container so as to use a large number of them to clean the tarantulas off. I also just misted the containers. I do this since the tarantulas tend to clean themselves off and remove any waste material stuck on them from the shipment, as well as get some extra hydration.













 

Xian

Arachnobaron
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Oct 20, 2009
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That's truely Awesome to see the pictures of them living communally in the wild. Thanks for posting them! Good Luck with your communes!:)
 

syndicate

Arachnoemperor
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Aug 26, 2005
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Very nice!!Beautiful species :D
Thanks for sharing and good luck breeding them!Shouldn't be to difficult with that group going!!
-Chris
 

Kamikaze

@baboonmanila
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Jun 11, 2008
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I'm glad that they allowed to export these magnificent spiders legally. Hopefully in the future, it will be readily available in the hobby.
Kudos to you and your T's! Wishing you the best.
 

TalonAWD

Arachnoprince
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Jul 28, 2007
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Very nice. I'm looking foward to more information on them. Are they going to be available anytime in the future?
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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Thanks.

If they breed successfully and I reach amounts that I can no longer sustain I will be supplying them to other breeders first. My whole plan is to allow for the community to be supplied with them through multiple breeders so as not to make a monopoly on CB of this species. I'm not in it for the profit.
 

Fran

Arachnoprince
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Great pics!

I believe the correct name would be " AraÑa pollito/a " Since AraÑa means "spider" and Pollito/a means little chicken.
(This is my opinion but it would make sense)
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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Great pics!

I believe the correct name would be " AraÑa pollito/a " Since AraÑa means "spider" and Pollito/a means little chicken.
(This is my opinion but it would make sense)
My apologies. I knew the "n" was off and couldn't find the keyboard short cut to it, as for the double "l" I was not aware. I did a spell check for the English, but should have double checked my poor Spanish (my ex was from Chile, I learned a bit from him). As for using the "a" instead of "o", I find the feminine ending rolls off your tongue better than the masculine.
 

scottyk

Arachnoangel
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Jun 17, 2006
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Great pics and report. Please continue to keep us updated and welcome to AB!

Scott
 

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
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This is very exciting, indeed.

Keep us posted!

--Joe
 

ftorres

Arachnobaron
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Oct 29, 2004
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HEllo Aranapolita,
Could you also post pics of the spematecae on the females an as soon as you have a mature male we would love to see pics too.

thanks and good luck.

francisco
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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HEllo Aranapolita,
Could you also post pics of the spematecae on the females an as soon as you have a mature male we would love to see pics too.
I will take pics as soon as I can.

<edit>
 
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ftorres

Arachnobaron
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Oct 29, 2004
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557
HEllo Aranapolita,
Could you also post pics of the spematecae on the females, and as soon as you have a mature male we would love to see pics too.

thanks and good luck.

francisco
 
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sharpfang

Arachnoangel
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BOK,bock,bok,bock,boc,bok BOCK

The Chicken Spider.....Wow!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::clap:

- Jason
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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Until I can get a clearer container this was the best picture I could come up with. I will try to improvise something tomorrow. She wasn't happy when I bothered her.


This species tends to sit calmy when disturbed, but randomly bolt once their tolerance level drops. For some that's within a couple seconds, others take up to 30 seconds or so.


 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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A note of interest. Like the Pamphobeteus antinous, when the chicken spider gets irritated it makes a faint hissing striation.
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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I think you mean it Stridulates.
Thanks for the correction. I always run spell check since I have slight dyslexia, but when I write different words than I mean spell check never picks up on it and even when I read over it my mind sees it as correct.


And love the Chiana avatar. I just finished watching all the seasons through again. ;)
 

Smitty78

Arachnobaron
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AbraxasComplex,

Unless I am missing something, these have not been properly identified yet correct? Am I to assume that you also own what is currently in the hobby as P. antinous?

Do you see any discernible differences in the two species (as we all know it is believed to be the same)? Yes I know this is not scientific, but I am very curious if you see something that plainly shows that this is a different species than P. antinous? I know you said your reaction to the urticating hairs was different.

With Regards,

Smitty
 

AbraxasComplex

Arachnoprince
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AbraxasComplex,

Unless I am missing something, these have not been properly identified yet correct? Am I to assume that you also own what is currently in the hobby as P. antinous?

Do you see any discernible differences in the two species (as we all know it is believed to be the same)? Yes I know this is not scientific, but I am very curious if you see something that plainly shows that this is a different species than P. antinous? I know you said your reaction to the urticating hairs was different.

With Regards,

Smitty


I have both species.

Like I said the urticating hairs are less effective on my skin, to the point of little to no reaction. And unlike P.antinous the Chicken Spider does not flick its hair often. My adult Chicken Spiders have no bare rumps from this practice, yet my adult P.antinous flick at any sign of irritation and have bald spots.

Aggression wise the P.antinous are easily spooked and will rear up, I've had a couple try and strike me before. The Chicken Spiders I have handled (the younger ones) and the adults tend to just bolt, but stay relatively calm.

For appearance all I can see is a slight difference in the adult females back 4 legs. The Chicken Spider tends to be a slightly more thick.



Another question though. My adult female has a little bit of fluid emerging from a leg joint. It isn't much, about 2mm across, but I'm still worried. I have amputated badly damaged legs in the past from other species, is this a wound that will seal itself or should I remove the leg to prevent issues? I'm just overly worried and anxious about the well being of the adult, with good reason.
 
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