Tliltocatl vagans
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Tliltocatl vagans , young animal |
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| ( Ausserer , 1875) |
Tliltocatl vagans ( Syn .: Brachypelma vagans ; rarely called "black and red tarantula") is a tarantula from the genus Tliltocatl . Their distribution area is in Mexico and Central America. It has a basic black color and longer red hair on the abdomen. Sometimes this species is kept and bred as a terrarium animal. It resembles the species Brachypelma kahlenbergi , Brachypelma epicureanum , Brachypelma sabulosum and Brachypelma angustum and can therefore be confused with these species.
features
The black and red tarantula grows up to 6 cm (measured from the biting claws to the spinnerets). Males are a little smaller and average 4 to 5 cm tall. It is dark brown to black and has long red hair on the black opisthosoma . The labium is also red. She has stinging hairs on her opisthosoma, which she can strip off with her hind legs in case of danger or for additional protection of her web. Except for the carapace, it looks similar in color to the related Brachypelma albiceps . In contrast to the dark carapace of B. vagans, it has a yellow-brown to golden color and is so easy to distinguish. According to Rick C. West, B. vagans are available in two color variants. The first has a uniformly dark to velvety black carapace. The second variant has a border of yellow-brown hair around the carapace and therefore looks like the juvenile stages of both variants.
It looks very similar to the smaller species Brachypelma kahlenbergi and can be confused with this species. B. kahlenbergi also has a basic black color and longer red hairs on the opisthosoma. In describing B. kahlenbergi, Jan-Peter Rudloff indicates that B. vagans has thicker red hairs on the opisthosoma and that these red hairs can also be found on the legs. The color of the carapace of B. kahlenbergi , on the other hand, varies greatly and in some individuals would even appear very light. The color is, however, not a taxonomically relevant criterion for differentiating the species and so it can be assumed that laypeople will confuse them. The reliable diagnostic differentiation from the species B. kahlenbergi takes place via the sternal sigils (at the sternum on the underside) as well as via the number of thorns in the tibial apophyses and the shape of the spermathec. In contrast to Brachypelma vagans, Brachypelma kahlenbergi has two thorns in the tibial apophyses.
In the first description of the species Brachypelma sabulosum , FOP-Cambridge gives some taxonomic characteristics: In the females of B. vagans as well as B. sabulosum the carapace is longer than it is wide and has a chocolate brown hair on the carapace. In B. sabulosum the carapace is only slightly longer than it is wide (26 by 24 millimeters). The legs of B. sabulosum have clearly light stripes, similar to Aphonopelma seemanni . These are located at the base of the protarsus and across the entire top of the tibia and patella. In the femora these are less evident. In contrast, the legs of B. vagans are uniformly dark in color. Another distinguishing feature documented by Jan-Peter Rudloff is the sperm library, which in B. sabulosum is more indented in the middle than in B. vagans .
Juvenile animal
female
Possibly a female of B. sabulosum with distinct light stripes on the legs.
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Habitat and behavior
This spider is found in southern Mexico and Guatemala . In Mexico, its territory extends from Oaxaca , Chiapas , Tabasco to Veracruz and the Yucatán Peninsula .
This species occurs naturally in tropical evergreen deciduous forests and in the northern Yucatán also in the transition from tropical deciduous forest to thorny dry forest. The species is also considered a culture follower , because it is often found at clearing sites under rotting wood. In Tabasco State, they were found in large populations under boulders in open and man-made areas. Populations with many individuals have been discovered on pastures, plantations, and lawns.
Sexually mature males die six months after moulting. A cocoon contains up to a maximum of 2000 eggs, an average of 500 eggs. The young animals leave the burrow in one or more columns and presumably later form colony-like groups.
Use by humans
The poison of this species of tarantula is being researched for the purpose of pharmaceutical and agricultural use.
With shamans of the Chol Indians , Brachypelma vagans is crushed, mixed with 97% alcohol and sifted through cotton fabric, as a drunk drug against the so-called disease "Air de tarantula" (Eng. "Tarantula"), which after symptoms of strong cough, pain in the Chest and burning abdominal pain is diagnosed. Sieving is probably used to wash out the stinging hair. The drink is also sometimes taken several times by the patient.
Brachypelma vagans is also kept as a terrarium animal. It can be assumed that in the meantime, due to incorrect identification of breeding animals, a number of Brachypelma hybrids are kept in terrariums that follow the color scheme “dark basic color, longer red abdominal hair” and are called Brachypelma vagans .
Web links
Tliltocatl vagans in the World Spider Catalog
literature
- Günther Schmidt: tarantulas, way of life - identification key - husbandry - breeding. Landbuch Verlag, Hanover 1993, pp. 77-82, ISBN 3-7842-0484-8 .
- SB Reichling: Group dispersal in juvenile Brachypelma vagans (Araneae, Theraphosidae). In: Journal of Arachnology. Volume 28, No. 2, 2000, pp. 248-250.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bastian Rast: Species section on vogelspinnenforum.ch about B. vagans . Retrieved September 12, 2014.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Rick C. West: The Brachypelma species in Mexico. In: Arachne. Volume 11, No. 1, 2006.
- ↑ a b Jan-Peter Rudloff: A new Brachypelma species from Mexico (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). In: Arthropoda. Volume 16, No. 2, 2008, pp. 26-30.
- ↑ Frederick Octavius Pickard-Cambridge: Arachnida - Araneida and Opiliones. Volume 2, In: Biologia Centrali-Americana, Zoology. London 1897, pp. 1-40.
- ↑ a b c Peter Klaas: tarantulas: origin, care, species, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003/2007, ISBN 978-3-8001-4660-4 .
- ↑ Jan-Peter Rudloff: A new Brachypelma species from Mexico, Brachypelma schroederi sp. n. (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). In: Arthropoda. Volume 11, No. 3, 2003, pp. 2-15.