Top ten largest species

stonemantis

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I was just curious on the top ten largest species. How large do they actually get?
 

Steffen

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Theraphosa spp.
Lasiodora spp.
Cyriopagopus spp.
Xenesthis spp.
Poecilotheria spp.
Acanthoscurria spp.
Pamphobeteus spp

Most of these contain species that can reach the magical 20 cm legspan and some of them more than 25 cm.

Possibly some Megaphobema and Nhandu species can quite large too.

Still, large is a wide subject. Some species have huge legspans, while others gain more weight and theres the difference og males and females too, to consider.
 

Scolopendra55

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It depends what you mean by "biggest". Biggest weight wise or biggest legspan. The heaviest is probably T.blondi and the largest legspan is probably T.apophysis.
 

stonemantis

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Let's start with legspan then and work our way up to weight.

I know #1 is T. blondi in weight T. apophysis in legspan but are there any other contendors? I'm talking 10"+ and .15 oz+
 

Scorpendra

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i don't know about weight, but L. Parahybana is definitely up there.
 

Cirith Ungol

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C. crawshayi can get pretty big too. Arn't some pokies in the race here too?
 

Steffen

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Cirith Ungol said:
C. crawshayi can get pretty big too. Arn't some pokies in the race here too?
Yes ornata, rufilata and im not sure about subfusca and miranda?
 

Lorgakor

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P. ornata, P. rufilata, P. miranda( I think) and I think there was a P. subfusca that was really huge and is in a museum somewhere.


Edit: Ha ha, you beat me to it Steffen!
 

stonemantis

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What about Cyriopagopus sp. "blue"? I only heard that they can get over 9"+
 

Scolopendra55

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Yes Cyriopagopus sp. "blue" get up to the 9" mark. They are also very impressive looking for an arboreal.
 

David Burns

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Your talking about the Largest known specimens of each of these species. Most specimens will be somewhat smaller then that.

The Tallest human is/was around 8' , if my memory serves, but the average human is around 5'5".

Most T.blondi will have max legspans of under 9". Enjoy;)
 

Merfolk

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True, and I think that the extreme legspans are mostly achieved in the wild. Perhaps because of the high temperatures and specific food there that would enable them to grow more than crickets would!!!

Hysterocrates are pretty large too.
 

stonemantis

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N. Vulpinus gets to be pretty large. My male is close to the 7.25" mark
 

stonemantis

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Merfolk said:
True, and I think that the extreme legspans are mostly achieved in the wild. Perhaps because of the high temperatures and specific food there that would enable them to grow more than crickets would!!!

Hysterocrates are pretty large too.
I agree they do get quite large.
 

Michael Jacobi

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Threads like these are very subjective and don't lead to any definitive answers, but they can be fun so I'll stick my two bucks in.

First, as has been pointed out the first thing to address is the definition of what "largest" means. Legspan, weight...? Poecilotheria rufilata may reach 10" in legspan, but would even at that size weight less than a 5-6" Brachypelma smithi. And by far the most important point was made by David. If I'm not mistaken, the tallest human was 8' 11" tall, whereas average adult male height for Americans is 5' 10" (5' 5" for females). That giant was obviously an aberration, but as any NBA fan knows there are plenty of men 6' 6" or taller. The average NBA center is over 1 foot taller than the average male height.

A great example is Theraphosa blondi. They are very large and heavily built and certainly a contender for the "largest" tarantula, but - on average - the typical Lasiodora parahybana or L. difficilis reaches a very similar size, albeit slightly lighter at the same legspan.

Getting back to the difference between legspan and weight, both P. ornata and P. rufilata may exceed 9 inches in legspan, but they're featherweights compared to all of the bulky New World spiders listed in post #2 by Steffen. And, yes, the type specimen of "Poecilotheria bara", which is now known to be synonymous with P. subfusca is very large. Andrew Smith has told me that this spider was collected north of the currently known distribution of P. subfusca, and he believes this may have been a larger population that is now extinct due to habitat destruction. Rick West has told me of seeing very large P. miranda in the wild and the possibility that it is one of the largest "Poecs", but the large number I have in captivity don't confirm this. (Of course, the wild and captivity are two completely diffferent things, and it may be that those he has seen are from a particularly large population and the material we have in the hobby is not from this population).

Well, I've blabbered on enough. The thread author asked for 10 choices and I will give them. This is, of course, very unscientific, incomplete, subjective, and the mad ramblings of someone trying to ingest enough coffee to wake up. Also, my list is based on legspan as I often measure spiders, but seldom weigh them. I also am referring to females, as some ultimate males have proportionately longer legs.

1. Theraphosa apophysis
2. Theraphosa blondi
3. Lasiodora parahybana
4. Lasiodora difficilis
5. Hysterocrates hercules - the true hercules, which is probably not in the hobby at this time. It is found in one of the most dangerous areas on Earth (Niger delta) and, although it may have been in the hobby a long time ago, those that are referred to as "hercules" today are probably not.
6. Selenocosmia crassipes
7. I'll lump these all together... the long-legged arboreals and semi-arboreals such as P. ornata, P. rufilata, Cyriopagopus sp. 'Singapore blue', etc.
8. Xenesthis monstrosa - Does this species really exist?!?! Another can of worms ;) There are some coming into the country being called that; we'll have to check the ocular arrangement and raise them up to see what they really are.... ooooooh, the mystery!
9. 10. - Alright, I'm cheating and just saying that there are other larger than average spiders that can be put here - both Old World and New World. I'll just cop out and move on to another thread.

Enjoy! Michael
 

CodeJACK

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The 2006 copy of the guinness book of records has a great picture of a blondi listed as the worlds "biggest" spider.

Great pic but as has been said, it depends on the definition of biggest.
 
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