Tiger tarantula
| Tiger tarantula | ||||||||||||
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Tiger tarantula ( Poecilotheria regalis ), female |
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| Poecilotheria regalis | ||||||||||||
| Pocock , 1899 |
The Tiger tarantula or Indian ornament Tarantula ( Poecilotheria regalis ) is a species of spiders of the family of tarantulas (Theraphosidae). It is one of the tree-dwelling tarantulas.
The tiger tarantula is native to southern India . There they lived in primary forests and teak tree - plantations .
features
Like all species of the genus Ornamental Tarantula ( Poecilotheria ), Poecilotheria regalis has an ornament-like pattern on the abdomen. This is colored light gray, the drawing is reminiscent of an oak leaf. While the markings on the upper side are different in males and females, it is very similar in shape and color on the underside in both sexes. A broad, light band is visible on the underside of the abdomen. The legs, including the tarsi, are alternately banded in black and light gray. On the top of the tibia there are five to six white dots on a black field. The underside of the legs of the 1st and 2nd pairs of legs has yellow horizontal stripes that alternate with black, the two rear pairs of legs have black and white stripes underneath. The drawing on the top is used for camouflage , the conspicuous yellow banding on the legs, which led to the German name tiger tarantula, is only visible in a threatening position. The front two pairs of legs are erected and show the black and yellow warning color found in many poisonous animals .
female
The females of the tiger tarantula reach a body length of up to 6 cm. The leg span is up to 17 cm. The tiger tarantula belongs to the medium-sized tarantula species. The carapace on the upper side of the front body ( prosoma ) has a light band bordered by two sinusoidally curved, dark brown stripes. The stripes start at the front, to the side of the eyes and unite shortly before the middle of the carapace, from where they then extend in two arcs to the rear edge of the front body. The rest of the carapace is hairy gray. A broad, light longitudinal band, lined with narrow, dark brown edges, covers the upper part of the abdomen ( opisthosoma ). Several dark brown stripes emanate from this in the lateral direction. The sides are light brown to gray. The time to mature molt is five to seven years in females. They can live to be ten to twelve years old.
male
The males are smaller than the females, their abdomen is much narrower. However, your legs are relatively long in relation to your body. The males reach a body length of up to 5 cm and a leg span of up to 15 cm. The ornamental drawing on the upper side of the abdomen is less pronounced than that of the females. They reach sexual maturity after 12 to 18 months and can live to be two to three years old.
Similar species
The tiger tarantula differs from similar species in the genus by having a wide, light-colored band on the underside of the abdomen, extending from side to side and encompassing the rear respiratory openings. The color of this band can be white, pale gray or pink to yellowish-red. Other species can also have light spots on the underside of the abdomen, but these are never united in a continuous band.
The tiger tarantula looks similar to the closely related species Poecilotheria ornata . The also closely related species Poecilotheria fasciata and Poecilotheria striata are already mentioned in the first description by Reginald Innes Pocock as being similar to the newly described Poecilotheria regalis .
distribution and habitat
The tiger tarantula is endemic to southern India . Its distribution area extends over the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu , Karnataka , Maharashtra and possibly Kerala . Due to the fact that the spider is carried away with timber transports and the adaptability of the animals, it can occasionally be found outside of this habitat. She lives in primary forests or older teak tree - plantations . The tiger tarantula can inhabit forests at altitudes between 250 and 1800 m above sea level, but mostly prefers below 1000 m above sea level. It is practically non- existent outside of deciduous and degraded forests.
In 1991 Volker von Wirth synonymized the tarantula Ornithoctonus gadgili , Tikader 1977, native to northern India , with the tiger tarantula. If this view can be sustained, the range will expand to other parts of India.
Way of life
The tiger tarantula belongs to the tree-dwelling tarantulas. She uses cracks, crevices and hollows in the trees as dwellings. Wandering males use whatever is available to them (including wall cracks) as a resting place.
The activity of the animals depends heavily on the season. They are much more active in the monsoon season , which lasts from April to November in their habitat, than in the dry season , when temperatures rise.
Both the females and the males have very sensitive organs of touch. This enables them to track down prey as well as to escape into the den when danger threatens. It is therefore not easy for scientists to obtain precise data on the populations of this species, as it creeps into hiding when people approach. This sense of communication is used during the mating season. The male drums the substrate with his buttons and the female responds with a similar drumming when it is ready to mate.
nutrition
Tiger bird spiders are mainly nocturnal and can locate their prey via the tactile organs on their legs. They feed on anything that can overwhelm them. In nature they mainly prey on insects. Larger specimens can also sometimes overwhelm small vertebrates such as various reptiles or mice in the wild . The specimen used by Reginald Innes Pocock for his first description of the tiger tarantula in 1899 was caught while it was eating a small rat that it had probably previously killed itself with a poison bite.
In the terrarium Tiger tarantulas with various insects fed.
Mating and laying eggs
After the drought, the males begin their search for females at the beginning of the rainy season (April to November). They often find shelter in people's settlements. During this time, the females stay in the vicinity of their den.
The mating is mostly peaceful. Eggs are laid 6–8 weeks after mating, the female lays up to 200 eggs in a cocoon . An average of two clutches are produced per season. After hatching, the young grow up quickly and leave the trees.
development
After the rainy season has ended, it is easier for the young to find food on the ground and to spread. At this point, there are plenty of young insects that the tarantulas prey on. There are also plenty of places to hide in the fallen leaves. The young tiger bird spiders spin living tubes under stones or in tree stumps and camouflage them with food residues and substrate from the environment. In the course of time, the growing spiders leave the ground and build their shelter between grasses or in bushes. The closer the monsoon season approaches, the higher they migrate to the trees and rarely leave them. Here they look for tree hollows and knotholes that can serve as accommodation. Ultimately, however, the trees offer fewer opportunities for hiding places than the soil substrate. It can also happen that several animals share a shelter. Researchers and collectors reported that tiger bird spiders literally sat on top of each other in some tree hollows, especially during the dry season. This semi-social behavior is remarkable, because otherwise the tarantulas often eat specimens of their own species, e.g. B. weaker siblings or older males.
Danger
The tiger tarantula does not appear to be endangered at the moment. It is considered to be the most common tarantula in southern India. An investigation from 2004 in large parts of the Indian subcontinent revealed 13 sites, plus 9 other sites known from the past were counted. Parts of the distribution area are in nature reserves, for example the occurrence in the Nallamala Mountains in the Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve , the only tiger sanctuary in the state of Andhra Pradesh. However, due to forest clearing for agricultural purposes and settlements as well as road construction, the immediate habitat of this tarantula is becoming increasingly smaller. Therefore it was added to the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species in 2008 (LC - Least Concern).
Another threat comes from collectors who bring the tiger tarantula into the international pet trade. Because of its color and size, it is very popular with terrarium owners and achieves high prices. However, the export of wild animals from the Indian subcontinent is prohibited. This means that the need for tiger bird spiders for terrarium keeping in Europe and the USA should not play a role for the stocks in India, but should be covered by breeding. However, specimens from India often find their way into pet shops. This is justified by the fact that crossbreeding has to be carried out again and again in order to preserve the color and size of the spiders in the terrarium population, as negative properties can be intensified by inbreeding. On the other hand, there is the argument that poor husbandry conditions in particular could be responsible for the low growth and pale color of tiger bird spiders.
Keeping in the terrarium
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Since the tiger tarantula belongs to the tree-dwelling spiders, the terrarium must be correspondingly high (about 40 × 40 × 50 cm). The humidity should be 75 to 85% and the temperature 25 to 28 ° C. An approximately 5 cm thick layer of unfertilized potting soil is suitable as a substrate, with some peat mixed in. A planting is not necessary in the terrarium. To maintain the humidity, you can also add a layer of moss.
Direct contact with the animals should be avoided, if implementation is necessary, then one should rely on aids such as B. Use tweezers. Due to the various necessary keeping conditions and the aggressiveness of the animals, the tiger tarantula is not exactly easy to keep and not recommended for beginners. It should be possible to reproduce the animals. The young tiger tarantulas grow very quickly in captivity and are quite robust.
In order not to damage the animal population, the export of spiders from India to other countries and continents is prohibited. Thus, all animals in the trade are offspring.
Since feeding vertebrates to invertebrates is prohibited, the animals should feed them with insects, e.g. B. various long- and short-sensor terrors and cockroaches , are fed. In the case of young animals, flightless fruit flies should be used.
Poison and toxicity
The tiger tarantula is slightly aggressive, but quickly retreats into its shelter when disturbed. However, if the disturbance persists, it bites. The poison of the tiger tarantula is stronger than that of most other tarantulas. The consequences are local pain, local swelling and severe redness that can last up to a week, as well as cramps that can affect different muscles and last up to a day. If these symptoms become more severe, medical treatment is needed. Caution is required, especially for allergy sufferers , as the consequences of bites are even stronger here. The effects of the tiger tarantula bites are underestimated because in most cases they are not life threatening. Under certain circumstances, however, complications can arise without hospital treatment. There is still no direct antidote to the cramps, as the composition of the neurotoxin that triggers them has not yet been clarified biochemically.
Research history and taxonomy
The type specimen , according to which Reginald Innes Pocock described the species, came from the forests of the Eastern Ghats in what is now the Indian state of Tamil Nadu . It was an adult female who was brought alive by HRP Carter to London in the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park . It did not survive the trip and the keeping conditions in the zoo long and was made available to the British Museum . The museum already owned a specimen from the Western Ghats in what is now the state of Karnataka , which turned out to be a male of the same species. A not yet sexually mature female from the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu was also available to Innes Pocock when it was first described.
gallery
Dorsal view of a female
Frontal view of a female
Partially hidden female in the vegetation
Lateral view of a male
Frontal view of a male
literature
- Reginald Innes Pocock: The genus Poecilotheria: its habits, history and species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 7, 3, pp. 82–96, 1899 (first description of Poecilotheria regalis on page 86)
- Hans W. Kothe: tarantulas . 1st edition, Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-4400-9367-0
- Stanley A. Schultz, Marguerite J. Schultz: The Tarantula Keeper's Guide: Comprehensive Information on Care, Housing and Feeding. Barron's Educational Series, 3rd Edition, 2009, ISBN 0-764-13885-5
Web links
Poecilotheria regalis in the World Spider Catalog
- S. Molur, BA Daniel & M. Siliwal (2008): Poecilotheria regalis . In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. Retrieved February 10, 2012
- Tiger tarantula on snake-pit.de
- Poecilotheria regalis eightlegs.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ regalis 'royal', also meaning 'beautiful', 'real'; Fritz Cl. Werner: Word elements of Latin-Greek technical terms in the biological sciences. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 64. Frankfurt / Main 1972 (1. A.), p. 352
- ^ Reginald Innes Pocock: The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Arachnida. Taylor & Francis, London 1900, p. 190
- ↑ a b c d Reginald Innes Pocock: The genus Poecilotheria: its habits, history and species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 7th series, 3, pp. 82-96, 1899
- ↑ a b c d S. Molur, BA Daniel, M. Siliwal, 2008: Poecilotheria regalis . In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. IUCN Red List, accessed December 20, 2011
- ↑ a b c d e S. Molur, BA Daniel, M. Siliwal: Distribution of the Regal Parachute Spider Poecilotheria regalis Pocock, 1899. Zoos' Print Journal, 19, 10, pp. 1665–1667, 2004 PDF (English)
- ↑ Volker von Wirth: A revision of the genus Ornithoctonus Pocock 1892 (Araneida: Theraphosidae: Ornithoctoninae) . Arachnologischer Anzeiger, 12 pp. 5-8, 1991
- ↑ a b c Poecilotheria-regalis ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. detailed description of terrarium keeping at snake-pit.de (accessed December 19, 2011)
- ^ Stanley A. Schultz, Marguerite J. Schultz, The Tarantula Keeper's Guide: Comprehensive Information on Care, Housing and Feeding. Barron's Educational Series, 3rd Edition, 2009, pp. 345-346 ISBN 0-764-13885-5
- ^ Stanley A. Schultz, Marguerite J. Schultz, The Tarantula Keeper's Guide: Comprehensive Information on Care, Housing and Feeding. Barron's Educational Series, 3rd Edition, 2009, p. 87 ISBN 0-764-13885-5
- ↑ K. Thulsi Rao, M. Prudhvi Raju, I. Siva Rama Krishna, SMM Javed, M. Siliwal, C. Srinivasulu: Record of Poecilotheria regalis Pocock, 1899 from Nallamala Hills, Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh. Zoos' Print Journal, 19, 10, p. 1668, 2004 PDF (English)
- ↑ Adapted from a IUCN Press Release: World's Mammals in Crisis. Iguana 15, 4, December 2008 PDF ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Tarantulas in general at Toxinfo.org, Gifttier-Informationsdienst des Poisonnotrufs München (accessed December 19, 2011)
- ↑ N. Ahmed, M. Pinkham, DA Warrell: Symptom in search of a toxin: muscle spasms following bites by Old World tarantula spiders (Lampropelma nigerrimum, Pterinochilus murinus, Poecilotheria regalis) with review. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine , 102, 12, pp. 851-857, 2009 doi : 10.1093 / qjmed / hcp128
