Brown Widow catches a solifuge
Location: Masai Mara, Kenya
January 11, 2011 11:44 pm
Hi Daniel,
A while ago, I sent you a picture of a tiny little solifuge that we weren’t able to identify. The other day, I watched the same solifuge (or at least one of the same species) running across the floor of my tent to the corner behind my toilet. It was the wrong corner to run to, as there’s a resident Brown Widow (Latrodectus geometricus) that lives behind my toilet. This was the result. I got a few more pics, but they were all out of focus as I was to excited to hold the camera steady.
Signature: Zarek
Brown Widow eats Solifugid
Hi again Zarek,
Thank you for sending us documentation of this awesome Food Chain encounter, a Brown Widow ensnaring a Solifugid.
Weird Spider
Location: Sacramento, Ca
January 10, 2011 11:31 pm
We found this spider in a towel in our backyard and weren’t sure what it was. Can you help??
Signature: Alysha
Juvenile Western Black Widow
Dear Alysha,
This is a juvenile Western Black Widow. This female will eventually lose the intricate markings and mature into a glossy black spider with a red hourglass marking on the underside of the abdomen. If you flipped this juvenile over, you would see the hourglass. You may compare your spider to this image on BugGuide.
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Spider in Guanxi Province, China
Location: Baise, Guangxi Province, China
January 9, 2011 9:31 pm
We accidently disturbed this guy from behind a framed picture in a building. His legs are about 6-8 inches each. He didn’t move very quickly and didn’t jump. We have considered it being a huntsman or a golden earth tiger spider…what is he??
Signature: the Reeves family
Huntsman Spider
Dear Reeves Family,
Your suspicion that this is a Huntsman Spider is correct, however we believe your size estimate is an exaggeration. Erring on the low end, if each leg was six inches long, this spider would be more than a foot across. Just like the fish that got away, the size of insects that are observed and that make an impression often seem much larger than they really are.
Spider
Location: Austin, TX
January 5, 2011 10:54 am
Hello Bugman,
This spider was waiting for me at my front door when I got home from work last night. With legs spread, it’s probably 3 to 4 inches across. It moved rather slowly. I tried to search the web for identification, but every species I found that looked similar was not native to this area. Thanks for any information you can provide.
Signature: Jeff
Tarantula
Hi Jeff,
That is a very black Tarantula. We imagine it is in the genus Aphonopelma. According to the AgriLife Website: “There are 14 species of tarantulas in the genus, Aphonopelma, listed from Texas in a recent work. Identification of species is difficult and requires mature males, a microscope, proper literature and experience.”
4 legged spider
Location: Sydney, Australia
January 5, 2011 6:25 am
Hello
This has me stumped. Never seen anything like it!
Looks a bit like a spider. Hangs around on the wall like a spider.
Seems to have a thin long body and 4 legs that spread diagonally.
WTB??!
Signature: Sincerely Jonathan
Net-Casting Spider
Hi Jonathan,
We do not recognize your spider and we are posting your letter as Unidentified since we haven’t the time to research this at the moment. Perhaps one of our readers will have some luck. You may also try scanning through the Spiders of Brisbane webpages. There are some spiders that rest with two pairs of legs together, creating the appearance of four legs rather than eight, and this specimen appears to be one of those.
Identification courtesy of Karl
Hi Daniel and Jonathan:
It appears to be a male Net-casting spider (Deinopidae), probably Deinopsis subrufa. You can also check out this site. Regards. Karl
Thanks Karl. Trevor also supplied us with an identifying comment.
That’s great! Thank you.
It does look a lot like this one:
http://www.wherelightmeetsdark.com/images/wiki/Netcasting_spider_Deinopsis_subrufa_3.jpg
I reckon that is what I saw or something very close.
Jonathan Young
Roatan Honduras Spider? Crab?
Location: Roatan, Honduras
January 2, 2011 10:44 pm
I snapped this photo of what I thought was a huge spider on Roatan Honduras. The local told me it was a crab, not a spider. Any ideas?
Signature: Thanks! Laurie
Possibly Huntsman Spider
Dear Laurie,
It is impossible to be certain because of the angle of your photograph, but we believe this is a Huntsman Spider, possibly Heteropoda venatoria. It is not a crab.
Possibly Huntsman Spider
Pamphobeteus- Ecuador
Location: Lives in Ecuador
January 1, 2011 6:39 pm
i just thought i would show the true beauty of the tarantula world. this is my male Pamphobeteus species from Ecuador. i have yet to find an actual common name from a book, but many people call them a South Ecuador Pampho. Tarantulas make the greatest pets. This one looks even better in person!
Signature: Zach
Tarantula: Pamphobeteus species
Dear Zach,
That is some beautiful Tarantula. The lavender color on the legs is stunning. Are these Tarantulas being bred in captivity or are they all wild captures? We are also curious why you would choose a male instead of a female because we are under the impression that the female spiders live longer. The description of Pamphobeteus antinous on Giant Spiders is “Pocock, 1903 Peru, Bolivia A very large and robust species from the rainforest areas of Bolivia. The femora of the legs have a bright blue colouration, especially apparent in mature males. Not that common in collections” and the description of Pamphobeteus ornatus is “Mature males are particularly striking being coloured with purple/pink to the legs and a starburst of colour to the carapace. Females remain dark brown to black.“ In our opinion, of the two, the description of Pamphobeteus ornatus seems quite accurate because of the starburst of color on the carapace.
As a matter of fact i have a female too. i honestly don’t have a clue on if they are bred in captivity. i ordered the female from a dealer and i found the male in a local pet shop that always have a great selection of exotic animals and Tarantulas. The females do live longer as you stated, but from what i have read, the females will stay a more brown color and wont develop the purple coloring on the legs (my female is still small at the moment so i don’t know for sure). As soon as i saw this one in the store and saw the purple.. i couldn’t turn it down. i don’t think any collector could. it’s simply gorgeous.
Broken Links Fixed
Broken links on your site
December 28, 2010 4:53 pm
Hi,
You have a couple of links to Te Papa’s website on your website, thanks heaps for that! I have recently noticed in our logs that some of these are broken, so I thought I’d report them to you to enable you to fix them.
These broken links came from a data migration when we upgraded our website. We are really sorry about it.
These are the 3 pages with broken links:
http://whatsthatbug.com/2007/12/29/two-spined-spider-from-new-zealand/
http://whatsthatbug.com/2005/12/21/two-spined-spider-new-zealand-spiny-orb-weaver/
http://whatsthatbug.com/2007/01/17/spiny-orb-weaver-from-new-zealand/
The new address of the two-spine spider on our website is the following:
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/ResearchAtTePapa/Research/NaturalEnvironment/InsectsSpidersAndSimilar/SpidersWeb/What/Pages/Twospined.aspx
Thanks a lot for linking to us again!
Kind regards,
Florence Liger, webmaster at Te Papa
Signature: Florence Liger
Thanks so much Florence. We have fixed the broken links. We know how much havoc can occur when there is a website migration.
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