Giant Chicken Spider

[tabbski]

that is amazing!!!! imagine if the hunt in massive packs and started attacking humans...

 

[seanrc]

thats awsome . communal T's thats so cool. the kids are just chilling with mom.. ive allways wanted this. hopefully they become available soon..

 

[PhormictopusMan]

Spiders have never botherred me, but hives of things do. It just doesn't go right with me. Cool spider though.

--Chris

 

[butch4skin]

I'm not really convinced that they "hunt together". I think it's probably more like a few individuals, probably young instars, feeding on the same carcass without displaying signs of outward aggression towards eachother. I'd have to see cooperative hunting to believe it. That would be amazing, I can't take anyones word on that.

 

[PhormictopusMan]

For coopoerative hunting to be practical, the spiders would need to be bringing down really big prey. Maybe that would be the big chickens.:drool:

--Chris

 

[KyuZo]

For coopoerative hunting to be practical, the spiders would need to be bringing down really big prey. Maybe that would be the big chickens.:drool:

--Chris

cooperative hunting would also includes the use of the brain too doesn't it? interesting...

 

[KyuZo]

I'd have to see cooperative hunting to believe it. That would be amazing, I can't take anyones word on that.

yup, just keep waiting;P.

 

[butch4skin]

yup, just keep waiting;P.

for what ?

 

[RottweilExpress]

Oh good, I thought I was the only sceptic around.

I'd like someone to copy the pics on here too, or send them to me, as my membership was denied and I've had enough of trying.

 

[butch4skin]

There is a picture of one of the spiders standing atop a dead chicken, which i guess is supposed to look like it is feeding on, but it seems obvious that the spider is neither feeding nor even arrived atop the chicken under it's own volition. The chicken is lying in the middle of a village, with no vegetation for a few meters, in broad daylight. Now what kind of spider hunts like that, I ask you?

 

[NevularScorpion]

im willing to pay 2 gran for the papers to bring some here in the U.S.

 

[butch4skin]

im willing to pay 2 gran for the papers to bring some here in the U.S.

Is that how much they are? We should start a drive here on the boards. People can make donations towards the papers, somebody can bring in a certain amount of spiders, and they will be distributed among the donors, according to how much was donated.

 

[UrbanJungles]

From what I undersand it's very hard to take them out of the country of origin...
According to Martin Nicholas whos' doing research on them...

They tend to tie rocks to your feet and push you into the river if you take wildlife without permission in Tambopata! Everything I observed and wrote about has been in-situ research over the course of 5 visits and a total of about 60 days in the forest. All captured specimens, weighed, measured and returned to their burrow un-harmed!

 

[CFNSmok.PL]

So, is "chicken spider" larger than T. blondi? From what I read T. blondi is
still no.1.

Smok.

 

[PhormictopusMan]

cooperative hunting would also includes the use of the brain too doesn't it? interesting...

Maybe, but there is the case of ants. Of course with all that chemical communication perhaps the entire hive is a brain.

--Chris

 

[Travis K]

when and where

so does any one know when and where these might become available?

I would love to have a 55gal setup with some of these guys!

 

[Travis K]

Mm

for those of us that are not familiar with mm's, 250 mm = 10.5"

 

[mack2]

Actually 250mm=9.8425197 inches

 

[Stylopidae]

Maybe, but there is the case of ants. Of course with all that chemical communication perhaps the entire hive is a brain.

--Chris

Scyotedes ssp. also display cooperative hunting.

There is a difference between gregarious living and eating and cooperative hunting, but since this species displays cooperative hunting it's a moot point in this thread.

I would like to see their hunting tactics compared to solitary Pamphobeteus ssp. to compare and contrast. I'd also like to see their tactics compared to the communal Scyotedes ssp....see where they differ.

I think this is different than ants. Ants have evolved that way over millions of years for selection of a tighter social structure.

Rather, the communication between these Ts is a evolutionary process which is just budding off. Colony behavior has evolved seperately in ants and termites. It would be interesting to see if these guys reach that level in a few million years...assuming the habitat isn't destroyed by then.

http://www.unil.ch/webdav/site/determinismes/shared/Documents2006/13novembre/robot_1_.20.pdf

Kind of an interesting paper on the evolution of social systems. It's not a direct link to this, because robots don't display the same type of learning by trial and error that Ts do. The patterns of behaviors Ts display are simple, but the interactions between those behaviors are very complex.

It's...something I'm not very good at explaining. Essentially, it does require some brainpower but it doesn't neccessarily mean they're the wolves everyone loves to think they are. It's cooperation, but not really a social heirarchy.

I doubt this is something that came up over one generation...rather, I think this is something which has evolved through increased tolerance of one another over time.

 

[Skulnik]

Thanks for that paper Chesire, I'm a medical librarian and I collect interesting scientific articles, like Bernard Vonnegut's "Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed."