Weird weird weird...

[belewfripp]

I've got an amblypygid of unidentified genus, let alone species, and I saw it eat today for the first time. I almost felt bad for the cricket, it was brutal -- impaled on the Iron maiden(the torture device)-esque pedipalps and getting shoved into the critter's mouth.

Weird.

Adrian

[Alex S.]

Yeah, the Amblypygi are awesome predators. The spike-covered pedipalps are very efficient killing tools. What does your amblypygid look like? Maybe a description?

Alex S.

[belewfripp]

I am not as good with other arachnids as with tarantulas, so some of the description I provide may be redundant, i.e. true of all amblypygids.


It is approximately 4 to 4 and a half inches in width and about 2 to 2 and a half inches long when all scrunched up. The individual legs are about 2 and half inches long, if fully extended, for legs II through IV. Legs I, the ones developed into feelers, are nearly 4 inches long. These measurements are eyesight guesstimates, so they could be off by a bit either way.

Legs II through IV are banded in yellow along the big segment closest to the prosoma, with the non-yellow parts being blue-black in color. The opisthosoma is also banded in alternate yellow and blue-black, with two yellow pits or spots occurring along each horizontal row of blue-black color. The pedipalps are much larger than on most amblypygids I have seen pictures of. Most have fairly small, horizontally speaking, pedipalps, but mine has palps that, running from the far end of one palp to the far end of the other, are wider than the position of the first pair of non-feeler legs (legs II) when the animal is resting.

Hopefully that helps.

Adrian

[Alex S.]

Most likely it is of the genus Damon, porbably the species Damon diadema. These are the most common species sold and adults usually have around a 4.5-5" legspan. They are commonly known as "Tanzanian giant banded tailless whipscorpions/amblypygids".

Alex S.