| Archive for San Francisco Bay Area Tarantula Society SF BATS |
| daveemory |
Mt. Diablo hike and my first findWent on a very pleasant (and only at the end, rain-spattered) hike on the east side of Mt. Diablo today. We saw multiple burrows, some covered with webbing and some not, as well as no less than four mature males hoofing it across the trail. All were in varying stages of mature-ness with very shrunken abdomens.Eventually I had the courage (chutzpah? rudeness?) to try out the ol' flushing technique on a burrow with a thin silk covering over it, and out popped this gorgeous specimen, which I believe to be an Aphonopelma - but does someone know the specific species? The males we saw were all dark gray/black with reddish abdomen bristles, but this was the only light brown one we saw. I believe it to be a female - anyone want to look at the picture below and guess? In any case, I decided she was a keeper and brought her home - the first tarantula I have ever caught. She is extremely tame and sat in my hands cleaning her chelicerae not long after instantly devouring a cricket I gave it when I housed it. Fun fun fun!! 
Is this a female..? PC 
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| BayLee |
This is indeed an Aphonopelma, the only genus in the US, with the execptio of the vagans, who was intruduced into Florida,
What species this is, I don't think anyone is certain of. Currently Brent E. Hendrixson, (http://core.ecu.edu/biol/bondja/hendrixson.html) is doing a Taxonomy on this genus and more should be knows soon. The male can be different in color so, you most likely have a female. Good luck, but don't make it a habit taken from nature. 
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| Ricky Ortiz84 |
Very nice find I just went out cruzing a couple roads and found two males out and about lookin for love I stoped and moved them off the road and hope pointed them in the right direction. | ||
| daveemory |
Oh, I know. I figured with 8 squintillion of them on that mountain, the animal kingdom could do with one less. After all, the last Aphonopelma I bought was wild caught. I reckon it's all about doing it responsibly and not bankrupting a colony. Which brings me to inquire just _which_ species of Aphonopelma it is; it looks somewhat like the A. hentzi I have, known as the Texas Brown or Oklahoma Brown... but what would you call a California one?? It resembles some pictures I have seen on-line of Aphonopelma sp., which seems to be listed as distinct from the hentzi. I'll be curious to find out the results of this taxonomy research. PC |
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| CodeWilster |
Probably just label it Aphonopelma sp "Mt. Diablo" for now. And they are usually that brownish color long after and before a molt. Once freshly molted, they are a deep greenish grey to almost black color. | ||
| daveemory |
So, the black ones are not necessarily males, then? Or is it that females only look that way when freshly molted? PC |
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| CodeWilster |
All of the males I have seen share the same dark coloration, however if you look at my and Kyle's pictures of a penultimate male you can see that they appear more golden on the carapace and do have the brownish color. All of the adult females I have found were either a light brown and appeared to be in premolt, or were a darker almost greenish color recently molted.
http://sfbats.myfreeforum.org/about1734.html http://www.calris.org/forums/thre...?tid=479&posts=18&start=1 *Be sure to scroll to the bottom of that 2nd link. You know come to think of it the dark coloration is likely typical of a VERY freshly molted specimen. The girl I have now is much darker than Kyles. Bottomline, I think a lot of it is just how recent its last molt was to be honest, maybe some color morphs between individuals. It is very unlikely that two different species are walking around that mountain. |
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| BCathcart |
Good Find, just be careful up there at Diablo, Rockstar and myself got harassed by rangers for even taking pictures of these beautiful creatures. Because it is a state park, they are very protective. | ||
| daveemory |
Harassing you for taking pictures?!? Yes, I am of two minds in terms of having taken a specimen, but I judged it based on knowing there are zillions of them established throughout that whole area. I mean, I saw five plus innumerable burrows in the space of 90 minutes. If you look at the photo of mine, you can she her/his abdomen is tiny; Cody, are most of the ones you've seen in the wild like this, suggesting they simply don't eat as much as our captive spiders? This one has eaten twice, so I don't imagine it is either immediately post-molt or pre-molt. Anyone know how big females get when mature? This one is about 3.5". Anyone able to hazard a guess based on the underside photo I took showing its epigastric furrow? I can't see the male organs, myself... PC |
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| BCathcart |
Yes, they told Rockstar and I that taking photos was "harassing" the wildlife. I know, crazy, they were not the nicest of people. | ||
| CodeWilster |
The abdomen size is usually fairly small on the wild specimens but that is only becuase in nature they don't have all of those yummy crickets running around and also suffer long droughts. There are probably a few times a year where food is much more plentiful and they can be found with much more swollen abdomens though.
BTW, Diablo is a well known tarantula hotspot. You may not be hurting much by taking one specimen, but consider everybody else that will eventually take one or has taken one. I can think of about 4 others including myself who own specimens from there. With slow growth and probably low survival rate for the slings, those "bazillions" could dwindle quite quickly if people are not considerate. |
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| daveemory |
Well, it was actually YOUR example I was following when you reported "a keeper" from your hike! Naturally, any collecting like this has to be done responsibly. I feel no need to ever catch another one. And let's be honest - there aren't enough tarantula buffs in the Bay Area who actually go to Mt. Diablo to take spiders to make a dent in the population. Or rather, I would be absolutely stunned if that were the case. Now, if DEALERS were taking as many as they could, i.e. what happens in Mexico, that would be an entirely different story, and I think we would know that that was happening by a preponderance of such tarantulas being available for sale, and that's not the case. Anyway, caution and moderation is wise. Totally agree. By the way, Cody, don't you have a whole thread up here about the trap door spiders you have caught...? Am I mis-reading? PC |
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| CodeWilster |
In that post I did include myself and that I do have a spider from there. I am not against collecting as long as it is to some extent ethical. I agree dealers are one of the bigger problems but even then so far they probably aren't hurting wild populations too bad (in regards to North America). Usually pesticides and habitat destruction are the real destroyers of any ecosystem. The demand for a bunch of Aphonopelmas I would imagine is much less than Avics and T. blondi anyway. And trust me I did notice that shortly after my thread a few new Mt. Diablo threads popped up.
As for Trapdoors, why do you ask? If you are calling me hypicritical then so be it but do you currently see any B. californicum on anybody's pricelists? My goal is to establish this species as CB, as well as the other spiders I collected (all in very small amounts in very healthy populations). Not to mention trapdoors are at WAY less demand than Ts and other inverts. Also not to mention they are for research purposes as well. I am trying to get into an internship program over the summer at berkely that pays $3,500 plus school credit for about four months of basically what I am already doing (unfortunately it is still quite difficult to get into). You will also NEVER see me collecting stuff in my backyard in bulk amounts to sell for profit...something in my gut just doesn't allow that. Bottom line, I was a bit hesitant putting up the post since I knew it would stimulate a little bit of demand. There is absolutely nothing wrong in my book for what you or anybody (again, including me) did and you are probably right about there will likely never be enough magnitude of demand for a bunch of locals to collect some Ts and hurt the populations severely . However I wouldn't go running around telling everyone there are hundreds and hundreds of them up there. Also, my friend took a male and a female. Our goal when we caught them was to breed them and give away the slings :) |
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| daveemory |
Cody - I wasn't necessarily calling you a hypocrite, I just thought it was worth pointing out that you engaged in the same activity you agreed can be questionable. No argument from me - there's pros and cons to it. I should also mention that a guy we were with who has been hiking and studying that area for something like 15 years indicated the population of tarantulas is giant and not decreased or anything scary like that. PC |
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| daveemory |
Well, what goes around......... the Aphonopelma in question, which was so nice and calm yesterday, kicked huge amounts of hair on me today, twice, as I tried to rehouse it to a bigger tank. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea!
PC |
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| CodeWilster |
Understood. Don't forget the fact that captive stock only got here one way and that is from the wild. I just wish more people had some sort of values and cared for the natural environment, not that anybody here doesn't. That being said I would not have bothered taking any trapdoors from San Diego if they were available CB. As further proof it is research I told my friend who offered to send me some just to wait around for me to fly down there and see them in the wild myself.
Anyway enough of that nonsense. It's good to know that somebody with a lot of experience there says that their populations are that healthy. I have been there three times for a few hours and usually only find about 3-4 burrows. Partly because I am looking for other stuff as well and just enjoying the hike, and partly because we are probably looking in different areas. In regards to your 2nd post; Lol I noticed that with them as well, what's funny is unlike some Brachys or others that sort of kick quick and run, I've noticed these guys will sit in one spot and kick, and kick, and kick, and kick, and kick, and kick... |
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| daveemory |
My rosea did it to me that way. Just sat there, kicking. The bummer is it's a total turnaround from its behavior yesterday after I captured it, jarred it around in a backpack, housed it, etc. It decided TODAY to be an bumhole. Since this incident, it has climbed to the upper corner of the terrarium in a hunched position and been there for hours. Totally not what it has done for the last 24 hours... I must have really bummed it out by moving it twice. I hope it forgives me. PC |
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