Malaysian Sparassids ID

I got some very nice Malaysian sparassids not too long ago and finally got around to taking some decent pictures. I'm not sure what species I have though (other than the Heteropoda boiei females), so hopefully someone on here can point me in the right direction?





Thank you for any thoughts!

The first might be Thelcticopis severa, found throughout Asia. I suspect the second is in the Heteropoda Latreille genus. Might be the newly discovered one described by Jaeger. He could probably name it if you sent the pic to Senckenberg.

I was hoping you'd reply to this, Snark The first definitely does have the T. severa look to it (assuming the pictures on Google image claiming to be T. severa are accurate). I'm glad that someone is tackling the mess that the sparassid family is and putting IDs on species as well. Peter Jaeger, correct?

pannaking22 said:

I was hoping you'd reply to this, Snark The first definitely does have the T. severa look to it (assuming the pictures on Google image claiming to be T. severa are accurate). I'm glad that someone is tackling the mess that the sparassid family is and putting IDs on species as well. Peter Jaeger, correct?

Click to expand...

I've seen a couple of severa. So dang fuzzy they look like bleached out Ts.

There's lots of problems with the Asian spiders. Many aren't properly described if they are described at all. The Dengue and malaria research is sucking the coffers dry, and forest encroachment is eating several thousand square miles every year in Thailand alone. Kist from my observations I also note the animals are extremely unpredictable. I haven't seen a Venatoria adult female in two years now on our property and Nephila in about that long. They don't stay put in a given range in the tropics it seems.

Saying Jaeger is a bit of a misnomer. He himself has a large team and that team is just a part of Senckenberg that is cataloging a hefty chunk of the entire animal kingdom. Dr. Jaeger just happens to be an arach lover and knows pantropic and equatorial arachnidia intimately. But even Jaeger is limited. When I asked about a ctenid he pointed out his practical knowledge was very vague with them. Hey, he loves sparassids! Can't blame him!


Anyway, there are a number of individual;s that are studying the animals here. But unless a person is independently wealthy, and scientists rarely are, they need the money of an institution behind them. That is, sadly, very rare indeed. Even people like Vetter and Crawford are confined to very small locales and limited budgets.

To give a perfect example of funding controlling research. A medical doctor I know became semi retired due to a disability. He decided to study tropical diseases. While there were numerous opportunities for 'associates', self funded individuals, he spent 2 solid years trying to connect with an institute then gave up. He now works for a year or so saving up money then takes courses and does field study in Malaysia until the funds run out. Wash, rinse, repeat. What is alarming is, the fully identified and researched tropical diseases just in SE Asia is an estimated 15% of the probable diseases out there. No money no honey as the hookers say. Now if the major countries were to divert their war machine money into medical research for just a year, even a few months, they could make a sizable dent in things. And, of course, animal research is far below medical on the money ladder.


PS Here's one that should make people twicth. According to that Doc friend of mine and the Malaysian study centers, as many as 1/3 of the tourist population that visits the tropics takes home a disease. Most are unidentified but fortunately trivial and without the tropical vectors won't be spread.
I've had three diseases that symptoms manifested as degrees of encephalitis. None were able to be diagnosed though one was suspected to be mosquito born and similar to the Japanese variety.

Alright, I heard back from Peter Jaeger and he says that the first picture is Gnathopalystes sp. and the second is Heteropoda sp. Without the specimens in his lab he can't go any further. I was reading up more on him and his team and they do a lot of very good work when it comes to arthropods. I'd love to go to Germany someday to see the facilities and everything.

That's interesting how the ranges of spiders seem to shift in the tropics, making it even more of a shame that funds aren't being used to study species shifts like that. Heck, a scientist could even play it off that they are studying shifts in disease vectors or in reservoirs such as flying foxes or something.

I definitely did twitch when I read that, especially since I'm studying medical entomology and have read lots of papers on emerging zoonoses (even went to a talk on that yesterday afternoon). I know people in the Southeast US are freaking out because of invasive mosquito species that could bring Dengue and Chikungunya stateside, though many seem to be more concerned with the genetically modified male mosquito idea as a control mechanism rather than the diseases themselves.

What caused so many Asian true spiders to flow in the past couple months?

pannaking22 said:

Alright, I heard back from Peter Jaeger and he says that the first picture is Gnathopalystes sp. and the second is Heteropoda sp. Without the specimens in his lab he can't go any further. I was reading up more on him and his team and they do a lot of very good work when it comes to arthropods. I'd love to go to Germany someday to see the facilities and everything.

That's interesting how the ranges of spiders seem to shift in the tropics, making it even more of a shame that funds aren't being used to study species shifts like that. Heck, a scientist could even play it off that they are studying shifts in disease vectors or in reservoirs such as flying foxes or something.

I definitely did twitch when I read that, especially since I'm studying medical entomology and have read lots of papers on emerging zoonoses (even went to a talk on that yesterday afternoon). I know people in the Southeast US are freaking out because of invasive mosquito species that could bring Dengue and Chikungunya stateside, though many seem to be more concerned with the genetically modified male mosquito idea as a control mechanism rather than the diseases themselves.

Click to expand...

In my younger days I would have been happy to crawl a few miles on hands and knees over broken glass to tour Senkenberg. For a start, most of the people there are fanatics which makes them irresistible. I wish more of their publications were in English. Another money problem: paying for qualified technical transcribers/translators.

Range and shift. Back to Darwin's Origin. No doubt that was a prime motivator for him. Nature is simply too damned fluid and arbitrary. Thus the argument behind in situ.

Dengue, Chik and others already have been imported. Most are limited by vector availability. Let the perfect storm happen, a jump shift in vector species... Human's haven't a clue how they are screwing up the ecosystems. I sometimes feel a good slap in the face like the common canine flea able to carry plasmodium would be a nice wake up call. Koch and friend$ vs an impending bottleneck in homo sapiens would be an interesting battle royal.

---------- Post added 04-23-2015 at 07:14 AM ----------

Kees Hood said:

What caused so many Asian true spiders to flow in the past couple months?

Click to expand...

You come up with an answer for that one and you will have an assured position in some prestigious university.

The Snark said:

In my younger days I would have been happy to crawl a few miles on hands and knees over broken glass to tour Senkenberg. For a start, most of the people there are fanatics which makes them irresistible. I wish more of their publications were in English. Another money problem: paying for qualified technical transcribers/translators.

Range and shift. Back to Darwin's Origin. No doubt that was a prime motivator for him. Nature is simply too damned fluid and arbitrary. Thus the argument behind in situ.

Dengue, Chik and others already have been imported. Most are limited by vector availability. Let the perfect storm happen, a jump shift in vector species... Human's haven't a clue how they are screwing up the ecosystems. I sometimes feel a good slap in the face like the common canine flea able to carry plasmodium would be a nice wake up call. Koch and friend$ vs an impending bottleneck in homo sapiens would be an interesting battle royal.

Click to expand...

Believe me, that's how I feel now that I've communicated with arachnologists that know what they're doing (Vetter, Jaeger, even a little bit with Crawford and Richard Bradley). The language barrier definitely makes things more difficult.

Regional weather certainly seems to influence range and shift. I've even noticed that here in central Illinois, where the ecosystem is much more simple (pretty much all corn and soybeans). I haven't found any wheel bugs in a year or two, but they used to be everywhere.

The spread of arboviruses is really going to be interesting in the next couple decades. Hopefully humans realize what they're doing before something really nasty rears its head. People were freaking out and thinking that mosquitoes were able to vector Ebola for a time, so that's one way to get their attention. If I was guaranteed to survive, I would enjoy watching that battle royal I think.