What Is This Little African T?

There's too much just to post in the ID forum, so I'm putting its pics here to see if anyone can give me a positive ID(yeah, yeah, I know that's not reliable from just a photo)on this little guy/gal.

I bought this spider last spring at a reptile show, from Glades Herp's booth there. It is a 'sling, or so I was told. The label said "East African Dwarf Baboon Spider-Pterinochilus spinifer". I've since found out that P. spinifer is no longer a valid taxon, and that it has been re-assigned Eucratoscelus constrictus. I really can't find much information on that species, though; most searches bring up the familiar "Stout-Leg Baboon", or E. pachypus, and I don't think my spider is one of those. The confusion arises partially from the origins of this particular T; one of the G.Herp vendors said that the shipment containing this spider was from Tanzania, while the other insisted it came from EGYPT. The spider is small, no more than two inches total diameter, if that. It's moulted twice since I bought it, and really has not increased in size much at all. Only the color has changed, from a nearly-black to this lovely olive shade with the yellow highlights and leg banding. It's an obsessive burrower, not much for webbing, though, other than using silk to create this odd "chimney" around the outside of its burrow, rather like that of a crawfish! It does not appear to be especially fast or nervous and is not defensive AT ALL, even though I do believe it is an OW spider. It just moulted for the second time since I've had about two weeks ago. It spends most of its time inside the burrow, only occasionally coming out to drink water, and even eats in there. I had to use my finger to coax it out so I could take its photo, and again, it shows no inclination to rear up or bite whatsoever, nor is it skittish.

IS this a probable E. constrictus, or something else? That fact that it really hasn't grown much makes me wonder if it's even a 'sling, or a young adult, since I always thought that the African T's were fast-growing.









pitbulllady

Reminds me of E.Pachypus but is lacking thick black leg 4. And lacking a black abdomen. I would venture to say that it is related to E.Pachypus. Is that an urticating hair patch?

And not all african Ts are fast growing. Look at C.Crawshayi! Has the growth rate of a brachypelma if not slower.

j.everson23 said:

Look at C.Crawshayi! Has the growth rate of a brachypelma if not slower.

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slower.

--the nature boy

There is a possibility that specimen is actually an immature male E. pachypus (males are rarely seen as WC imports), rather than E. constrictus.

I will contact Richard Gallon for you, and post his thoughts here.

Eric

I too wonder if it is a male E Pachypus. I aint like my female which has the thicker back legs and grey abdomen. Lovely looking T all the same you got there

if that is a male E. pachypus you will be one popular person soon!

If it's a male, it must take them a long time to mature. It's way smaller than an adult female Kukulcania hibernalis, a very common true spider I find in the house and at work all the time. It's about the same size as a typical Pardosa sp. Wolf Spider I find running around in the yard, less than half the size of a typical Hogna sp.. Do only the male E. pachypus have those characteristic enlarged rear leg sections? Nick Mole at First Choice Reptiles had a bunch of that species at the most recent show, including 'slings that were just starting to show any color, and every one of 'em already had those distinctive rear legs. If I'd known that males were so rare, and that my spider was a probable male, I would have picked up a few girls for him! I don't know...maybe H. gigas and P. murinus have given African T's a bad rep, but both this little spider and my big fat P. chordatus are really mellow, and none of the E. pachypus or C. marshalli that were on First Choice's table at the last Columbia show seemed at all prone to being nasty, even though they were recent imports and were all in good shape, physically, unlike many vendors' T's, which are dehydrated and scrawny.

pitbulllady

It definitely looks like Eucratoscelus to me. I've never seen a juvenile E pachypus, maybe that's what you have. I dunno when the famales develop the bell bottoms. If that's an immature MALE E pachypus there... Well you're sitting on 8 legs of gold. I have 2 females who would love to meet him.

males lack the bell bottoms. Their is a picture on the baboon tarantulas website.

My first thought was also E. pachypus male.

And yes, they are extremely slow growers. I had a 2" female who didn't molt over a whole year.

GoTerps said:

There is a possibility that specimen is actually an immature male E. pachypus

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That was my first thought to.Also the last time I saw a male pachypus it was labeled this same thing!
-Chris

Richard's reply:

Difficult to say for certain, but I'd go for it being a sub-adult male pachypus (at that size females would show leg IV thickening). E. pachypus are common amongst Tanzanian shipments, but I've only ever heard of E. constrictus coming from Kenyan exporters.

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Eric

If that is a male E.Pachypus then you really need to get the thing bred. I have never seen CB slings for sale. Just WC sub-adults and adults. It would be nice to get some of these bred. Because then their offspring would obviously contain males and the chain would continue and we would hopefully get to decrease the number of WC specimens after a while. Sorry for the rant lol. But it relly would be great to start breeding these in captivity so we can stop taking them out of the wild.

I guess I need to start looking for a female, then! Hopefully, I've got awhile before he matures to find one, and hopefully again, they will be plentiful at the spring reptile shows.

pitbulllady

pitbulllady said:

I guess I need to start looking for a female, then! Hopefully, I've got awhile before he matures to find one, and hopefully again, they will be plentiful at the spring reptile shows.

pitbulllady

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Awesome.:clap: Keep us updated on the breeding Pitbulllady.

pitbulllady said:

Hopefully, I've got awhile before he matures

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I wouldn't be surprised if he matures with the next molt.

Eric

Looks almost identical to my Eucratoscelus contrictus, agressive little buggers... I dont think it looks like Eucratoscelus pachypus, not like the ones I have. I could be wrong... im prone to that.

If that's an immature male E pachypus then they must have some color changes when they hook out. This is a MM E pachypus that I had for a little while. Note the different coloration.

Hi JimPP,

JimPP said:

Looks almost identical to my Eucratoscelus contrictus, agressive little buggers... I dont think it looks like Eucratoscelus pachypus, not like the ones I have. I could be wrong... im prone to that.

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There's nothing in the picture that makes me think it's anything other than an immature male E. pachypus. It may very well look "more like" your E. constrictus, but this is likely due to the fact that E. constrictus lack the enlarged segments on Leg IV. Male E. pachypus also lack this feature... they are just rarely seen in our hobby. So, hearing the statement, "It looks more like my E. constrictus", does not surprise me at all.

Of course, all we have to go on is a picture... but there is no one in the world whose opinion should be valued more than Richard's... whose reply I quoted above.

Maybe I'm all wrong though!

Eric

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