Sparassidae Photos - Huntsman of All Species

[Arachnoporium]

Awesome Photos

Great photos in this whole thread ... I have around 40 oddballs from South East Asia ... there are so many color patterns that it makes me wonder if various species breed with one another - any opinions on this?

I'll try to get some photos, the speed always makes it a challenge to get a good shot.

 

[Gordon]

One more of Heteropoda lunula (subadult male)




Damastes sp. from Madagascar




And you call Heteropoda boiei the green huntsman? So how shall we call this one?

Micrommata sp. from Europe

 

[froggyman]

wow that Damastes is cool and so is that european huntsman

 

[Peter Grabowitz]

Thelcticopis modesta

 

[Irks]

correction

Sold to me as Holconia immanis, but possibly Holconia insignis? Should have at least 1 molt left (molted 3 days ago), but I hope it has 2+ molts left. 5" legspan currently, female.

I was wrong, my previous pic is a male, 1 molt before palps. 6" now, with big palps.

This, however is a guaranteed female, I swear! 5.75"

 

[Stefan2209]

BUMP!

Heteropoda boiei, Malaysia, cb juvenile male

Have a nice sunday, everyone!

Stefan

 

[Apophis]

Whoa Stefan! VERY nice specimen! :drool:
All the ones I've seen in person were drab greenish (probably females), but this one is something else!

 

[Stefan2209]

Whoa Stefan! VERY nice specimen! :drool:
All the ones I've seen in person were drab greenish (probably females), but this one is something else!

Hi,

yeah, the females look indeed not nearly that spectacular, however, they can to my experience achieve quite extreme sizes, so they have their very own appeal regardless of the lacking colours.

As i have never seen an adult male first hand of this species yet, i´m quite interested to see how large these will grow.

Greetings,

Stefan

 

[bluefrogtat2]

raising greens

i bought the greens as tiny slings,have been great raising them they start to color up just over an inch.and pound fruit flies.lots of fun,can't wait till they are larger,nice pic stefan
andy

 

[Stefan2209]

BUMP

Hi there,

and you didn´t dare to forget about these, did you....

Heteropoda lunula, cb juvenile female

It´ll soon be start to wave your goodbyes, guess i´ll give away my specimen. ;P

Have a nice weekend!

Stefan

 

[Erigo]

Cerbalus sp. and Holconia insignis

 

[lhystrix]

Rhitymna sp, adult male.
Female could be different species, and Thelcticopis does not appear to be correct.

 

[froggyman]

very impressive spiders

 

[UrbanJungles]

i bought the greens as tiny slings,have been great raising them they start to color up just over an inch.and pound fruit flies.lots of fun,can't wait till they are larger,nice pic stefan
andy

Hey Andy, you need to catch up...some of mine are pushing 2"

 

[Stefan2209]

Rhitymna sp, adult male.
Female could be different species, and Thelcticopis does not appear to be correct.

Hi Jeff,

this is SO ridicicolously funny to me...

Apparently - NOT the same.

Apparently - NOT T. modesta

These aren´t questions - just wisdom.

The following is quid-pro-quo:

WHO identified the shown specimen as being T. modesta?
WHO identified T. modesta at all in the US?
WHO ever identified Rhitymna?

Answer is welcome through PM or mail, this is QUID-PRO-QUO.

Grinning,

Stefan

 

[lhystrix]

Hi Jeff,

this is SO ridicicolously funny to me...

Apparently - NOT the same.

Apparently - NOT T. modesta

These aren´t questions - just wisdom.

The following is quid-pro-quo:

WHO identified the shown specimen as being T. modesta?
WHO identified T. modesta at all in the US?
WHO ever identified Rhitymna?

Answer is welcome through PM or mail, this is QUID-PRO-QUO.

Grinning,

Stefan

Hello. Only you would leave such a reply...

Okay, why don't you tell me what they are?

They were both sold as Malaysian orange hunstman, which are labeled as T. modesta by dealers here in the US, and images in this thread.

Perhaps my previous description was poorly worded.
Discussion in other post and photo by F. Murphy suggest the male is Rhitymna and not Thelcticopis.

I had previously contacted another member here in regards to these. He suggested I email P. Jager in hopes of confirmation or correction.

Now, despite Stefan's shenanigans, here are some more images of these beautiful spiders.

 

[froggyman]

wow quite limber little spiders

 

[Stefan2209]

Hello. Only you would leave such a reply...

Hi Jeff,

i wonder if you read more into my post than was intended from my side? – Let´s sort a bit through that:

Okay, you pompous a-hole, why don't you tell me what they are?

Because I don't know – my remarks had been – and are – dead serious here.

They were both sold as Malaysian orange hunstman...

It's the same here in Europe. Actually, there´s no way to make sure by now if we even deal with one, two or maybe even more species that are all sold under this name.

which are labeled as T. modesta by dealers here in the US, and images in this thread.

Same here – the really interesting question about this is: has this “ID” ever been verified? If so, by who?
Note: no pun. We´ve species here in breed in Europe that last like more than 10 years here through captive-breeding already, their ID has never been questioned.
Interestingly, when one pokes deeper into it, one will find that it's NOT what it's said to be. Apparently no one ever dared to question that ID´s…

When I found first specimens of those orange things around here in the pet trade those had been advertised as “Sparassidae spec. orange” or something similar. – Fine with me.

I had sent off an adult female to Peter Jäger once she was dead, though, NOT for ID purposes from my side, originally.
Another specimen I had back then was given away from my side to friend who has deeper interest in Sparassidae than I can claim to have. I was out of that story.
That´s like two years ago…

Soon time later the name T. modesta appeared, nearly at the same time in the European pet trade as in the US.
At the very same time, too, another, similar looking species was introduced, named to be Rhytimna.

The topic is getting a bit more complicated from here, as not only adult specimens of both species (?) got offered, but offspring, too.
The species proofed to be slow growing and it took more than one year for people to realize that in some cases they had apparently not been raising what was supposed to have been sold to them. E.g. they bought what is dubbed “T. modesta” and ended up with said-to-be “Rhytimna´s” or vice versa, thus making ideas about breeding at least “a tad more interesting”.

Over the last years it was every now and then in private communication between some guys with “some” interest in Sparassidae and the species available to European trade pet discussed WHO had taken care about identification of the named species.
This is often done through kind support of Peter Jäger, but he´ll need a specimen to be able to identify something…
Not one person has till date announced that positive identification has ever been conducted – strange, if you take into account that the last introduced species, like the H. boiei´s or even the H. lunula´s had been identified quite fast and “transparent” – it had never been a problem to track down HOW those were identified.

We have even more going on, like members of the genus Damastes, which are actually sold as being “Delena” from at least one dealer here…
It's rarely a problem to “keep track”…

But it's, at least to my perception, a bit in-transparent in regard to that orange things.

Let´s get back to your original statements:

Rhitymna sp, adult male.

So, you´ve bought this as being Rhitymna…
WHO said so – in regard of a verifiable ID? This is NO attack – it's just a hint that you might want to question things a bit if you should really want to poke into things.
Just because the species is sold since some time under this name won't make it any better in the first place if it can´t be tracked down that there had ever been a positive species ID been made.

Female could be different species

Most likely, you´re stating the obvious here.

Even worse: there had every now and then wc specimens appeared that looked like a “mix in between” of these two species.

and Thelcticopis does not appear to be correct.

Thelcticopis needs to get verified in the first place.

The really funny aspect is, this is not “new”, at least not in Europe, these questions have been discussed in the past and it wouldn't be too difficult to shed some light into this if someone would just be willing to spend some efforts – like tracking down specimens of both supposed species, trying to track back their origins in South-East Asia and eventually ask Peter for help in regard of identification.
Anyway, this would just be the very first step, as a single ID would be rather “useless” if you take the “market situation” into account: new imports occur regularly and there are often species to be found that “appear to be the same” – who says, they are?
Who could, if it's not even clear where exactly those had been collected… Who is aware of possible variations in outer-appearance of the very same species…

Those questions would just then make sense if the identified specimens would be used for long-term captive breeding projects, as you´d definitely need to keep track of your identified specimens.
Imagine, send one off, get it identified, buy another one that “looks the same” – who says it´ll in fact be?

This little story is going back and forth here, personally, I find it, as stated, amusing: it WOULD be possible to change something. Even the methods got discussed and many people had been involved here that have had contact with Peter in the past.
Just no one is willing to go through the hazzle of getting all that sorted out by now. Apparently, now this question raised it's head in the US, too. Personally, I like this. Maybe “over the pond” someone will be willing to spend efforts to sort through this. It´ll be a whole bunch of “work” and it´ll cost time, no question – anyway, it´d be manageable.

Discussion in other post and photo by F. Murphy suggest the male is Rhitymna and not Thelcticopis.

The tricky thing in the first part is – again – to make sure that pictures you look at and that claim to show this or that species indeed show the mentioned species.
You will need to track back that ID´s.

I had previously contacted another member here in regards to these.

This is a good idea: team up, if you want to evolve. Get in touch with other keepers / breeders to get more insight in what has been imported, what is imported, the origins of the specimens, the importers, blood lines…
Start to collect some data, start to collect dead material…

He suggested I email P. Jager in hopes of confirmation or correction.

This is the best idea, once you have some material at hands. Peter is extremely kind and supportive to the hobby. I have no doubt he will be willing to help out with this topic as long as you can give him some more than just some pictures.

If you dig deeper into these spiders you'll find that there´s much less known, than one would estimate, given their far distribution within the pet trade.
From general aspects of development, to reproduction behaviour, up to distribution patterns – not too much is known. Somewhat weird, given the numbers in which these got imported over the last years as well to Europe as to the US…

Be encouraged to clear some things up here if you like. However, be aware that you'll just have to start with even the most-basic questions, like is the species-label under which these spiders are sold under even correct.

Have a nice Sunday.

Regards,

Stefan

 

[lhystrix]

That's great, Stefan!
As previously mentioned, 'perhaps my original comment was poorly worded'.
Thank you for providing needed insight on the matter. Should I make any progress, I will update.

Jeff

 

[LasidoraGT]

nice pix guys! im a fan of trues myself. im gunna be lazy: how big do H. venatoria get?