Thailand report - Latrodectus

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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It appears that we have someone similar to Latrodectus Geometricus in northern Thailand. I have just delivered a specimen to the local university for identification.
My initial examination of the specimen indicated that it is identical to the geometricus I studied in Northern California.
I am not feeling all that optomistic of the quality of the supposed identifiers however. A professor glanced at the specimen and pronounced it to be a 'wood spider'. The common 'wood spider' here is in the Lycosidae family and obviously a first grader could have given a better report. The next genius I encountered carefully wrote down that my specimen was in the aranae family and the class known as arachnidia. I hope I can expect a little better from whoever actually examines the specimen.

On other news I have spotted several lovely argiopes lately. Non that noteworthy but a delight to see them here. We have also had several lynx spiders around our home which is a little sad as I have imported dozens of salticidae and the poor lynx falls very easy prey to them.

Perhaps the best news of all is my having converted my wife to arachnophilia. She has readily accepted turning our bathroom into a therididae sanctuary and avidly reports the ongoing romances, newcomers, expectant mothers, and keeps track of the dispersal of the newborns. Our therididae are of the extreme long legged variety with relatively tiny bodies. The males are often as large as the females and commonly cohabitate the webs for some time before and after mating.
 

Kugellager

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This thread has been moved from the "Breeding Reports" forum where it does not belong to here in "Other Arachnids" where it is appropriate.

If you want to see some decent images of L.geometricus see the link below and see images 20-23 for L.geometricus photos.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=4898

John
];')
 

JPD

Arachnobaron
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I am confused about the following: L.geometricus has only recently been established in CA and from my understanding, it was one or two specimens recovered. Were the L.geometricus that you were studying native to the state?
Also....is it possible that you recovered Latrodectus rhodesiensis?
 

Kugellager

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The L.geometricus I had were from Florida and are found in many tropical and subtropical regions areound the world. They are one of those species that have followed man around the world.

John
];')
 

Randolph XX()

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i am not suprised by this new finding
we have L.hasselti and few records of L.geo in Taiwan, also in Japan
 

The Snark

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L Geometricus sightings

The experts reply to my query:

<<This species is considered "cosmotropical". It has been carried by commerce all over the tropics. It's found in Florida, all over the Caribbean, throughout tropical South America, Hawaii, New Guinea and many, many other Pacific islands, Australia, Africa... It would be surprising if it *didn't* turn up in Thailand.>>

Looks like L Geo is really getting around.
 

Kugellager

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The Snark said:
The experts reply to my query:

<<This species is considered "cosmotropical". It has been carried by commerce all over the tropics. It's found in Florida, all over the Caribbean, throughout tropical South America, Hawaii, New Guinea and many, many other Pacific islands, Australia, Africa... It would be surprising if it *didn't* turn up in Thailand.>>
Is that not what I said but in a less Websterese fashion? LOL

John
];')
 
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