- Joined
- May 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,821
I am requesting the help of the tarantula keeping community by asking for the molts of your tarantulas and your recently deceased tarantulas for a project which will provide an online identification guide for the family Theraphosidae.
It is well known in the tarantula keeping community that the accurate identification of tarantula species is quite difficult and requires specialized skills to make a positive ID. It is also known that some species are bought and sold in the pet trade with the wrong scientific name which could lead to wasted investment in breeding programs or disappointment when found that the species paid for with hard earned money turn out to be something different.
At present, there doesn’t yet exist a simple, accessible, easy to use guide in which the enthusiast can learn how to identify their captive tarantulas. Instead the enthusiast must spend hours finding and reading through hundreds of pages of scientific articles on tarantula taxonomy just to find a dead end to what was seemingly a simple question. The goal of my online tarantula ID guide project is to assist the average enthusiast with a means to pin down what species they have,and to answer the most important question of “why is it this species?” Fortunately, within the past 15 years or so, theraphosid spiders have been receiving more attention from taxonomists and better quality descriptions and revisions, compared to works published in the 19th and 20th centuries, have been published making the identification of some taxa clearer. That being said however, there are still many groups of tarantulas that need revising and not every species can be clearly identified. A proper identification is only as good as the published descriptions. This project will not be able to aid the enthusiast to clearly identify every species available in the pet trade, but should be helpful with a good number of them. As tarantula taxonomy is ever changing as new information is found and published, the information in this project will be changed to reflect new research once online.
This is where you come in to help with this project. In order for this project to come to a reality, I need as much material as possible in order to photograph, compare to published works, and detail the defining characters of each taxon for you, the enthusiast, to then compare to what you have in your collection. All species of either gender, even if the gender is unknown, is valuable. The following is a short list of requirements to follow if you are interested in donating your tarantula’s molts or donating your recently deceased tarantulas.
Guidelines for Donating Molts/ Excuviae
- Should be from tarantulas that are mature or close to mature. This can vary species by species considering there are very large tarantulas and some that are very small. Please use the approximate maximum size for the species as a guide. For example, an adult female Theraphosa stirmi can be as large as 9 inches legspan or more. Molts for this species should be at a minimum of 5 inches. Molts for the dwarf species should be at a minimum of 1 inch legspan. These are approximate, naturally, the closest to mature possible are best as they will have all taxon defining characters. Spiderlings, or early instar, of any species can not be used.
- Please include the species you have it labeled as or what it was sold to you as. Since some species are sold with the wrong name and hobbyists can misidentify species based on pictures, it would be helpful to know if there are any patterns to what species are most often misidentified and how common this is.
- As previously stated, all species of either gender even if the gender is unknown are welcomed.
Guidelines for Donating Deceased Tarantulas
- MUST be recently deceased and free from parasites, fungus, mold, or any sign of decay. Also must not carry the smell of decay. If you have a tarantula on its last legs so to speak, please place in the freezer as soon as possible when death occurs. If you already have a collection of deceased tarantulas in the freezer and don’t know what to do with them, please consider donating them.
- Only mature males and mature females are accepted if deceased.
- Dried specimens should be fine as long as they are not too brittle.
- Specimens can not be accepted if sent in alcohol or other flammable or hazardous substance.
- Please include the species name you have it labeled as or what it was sold to you as.
Some fine print…
Permission to post this inquiry in the Tarantula Questions and Discussions forum has been given to me by the site owners.
Any material you wish to donate can not be returned.
Before sending anything, please contact me via e-mail for shipping instructions and to make sure I will be available to receive the package.
Absolutely no live tarantulas will be considered. No exceptions.
Donations of deceased or the molts of taxa in other Mygalomorphae families will also be considered for comparison to the Theraphosidae.
Thank you all in advance for anything you can donate. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions you may have at the e-mail address below.
- Lonnie Davis
lonniewdavis (at) yahoo (dot) com
(Please replace the (at) with @ and (dot) with . and remove all spaces.
It is well known in the tarantula keeping community that the accurate identification of tarantula species is quite difficult and requires specialized skills to make a positive ID. It is also known that some species are bought and sold in the pet trade with the wrong scientific name which could lead to wasted investment in breeding programs or disappointment when found that the species paid for with hard earned money turn out to be something different.
At present, there doesn’t yet exist a simple, accessible, easy to use guide in which the enthusiast can learn how to identify their captive tarantulas. Instead the enthusiast must spend hours finding and reading through hundreds of pages of scientific articles on tarantula taxonomy just to find a dead end to what was seemingly a simple question. The goal of my online tarantula ID guide project is to assist the average enthusiast with a means to pin down what species they have,and to answer the most important question of “why is it this species?” Fortunately, within the past 15 years or so, theraphosid spiders have been receiving more attention from taxonomists and better quality descriptions and revisions, compared to works published in the 19th and 20th centuries, have been published making the identification of some taxa clearer. That being said however, there are still many groups of tarantulas that need revising and not every species can be clearly identified. A proper identification is only as good as the published descriptions. This project will not be able to aid the enthusiast to clearly identify every species available in the pet trade, but should be helpful with a good number of them. As tarantula taxonomy is ever changing as new information is found and published, the information in this project will be changed to reflect new research once online.
This is where you come in to help with this project. In order for this project to come to a reality, I need as much material as possible in order to photograph, compare to published works, and detail the defining characters of each taxon for you, the enthusiast, to then compare to what you have in your collection. All species of either gender, even if the gender is unknown, is valuable. The following is a short list of requirements to follow if you are interested in donating your tarantula’s molts or donating your recently deceased tarantulas.
Guidelines for Donating Molts/ Excuviae
- Should be from tarantulas that are mature or close to mature. This can vary species by species considering there are very large tarantulas and some that are very small. Please use the approximate maximum size for the species as a guide. For example, an adult female Theraphosa stirmi can be as large as 9 inches legspan or more. Molts for this species should be at a minimum of 5 inches. Molts for the dwarf species should be at a minimum of 1 inch legspan. These are approximate, naturally, the closest to mature possible are best as they will have all taxon defining characters. Spiderlings, or early instar, of any species can not be used.
- Please include the species you have it labeled as or what it was sold to you as. Since some species are sold with the wrong name and hobbyists can misidentify species based on pictures, it would be helpful to know if there are any patterns to what species are most often misidentified and how common this is.
- As previously stated, all species of either gender even if the gender is unknown are welcomed.
Guidelines for Donating Deceased Tarantulas
- MUST be recently deceased and free from parasites, fungus, mold, or any sign of decay. Also must not carry the smell of decay. If you have a tarantula on its last legs so to speak, please place in the freezer as soon as possible when death occurs. If you already have a collection of deceased tarantulas in the freezer and don’t know what to do with them, please consider donating them.
- Only mature males and mature females are accepted if deceased.
- Dried specimens should be fine as long as they are not too brittle.
- Specimens can not be accepted if sent in alcohol or other flammable or hazardous substance.
- Please include the species name you have it labeled as or what it was sold to you as.
Some fine print…
Permission to post this inquiry in the Tarantula Questions and Discussions forum has been given to me by the site owners.
Any material you wish to donate can not be returned.
Before sending anything, please contact me via e-mail for shipping instructions and to make sure I will be available to receive the package.
Absolutely no live tarantulas will be considered. No exceptions.
Donations of deceased or the molts of taxa in other Mygalomorphae families will also be considered for comparison to the Theraphosidae.
Thank you all in advance for anything you can donate. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions you may have at the e-mail address below.
- Lonnie Davis
lonniewdavis (at) yahoo (dot) com
(Please replace the (at) with @ and (dot) with . and remove all spaces.
