Psalmopoeus irminia
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Psalmopoeus irminia , adult female in a terrarium |
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| Saager , 1994 |
The Psalmopoeus irminia (sometimes called Venezuela ornament tarantula in German ) is a spider from the tarantula family (Theraphosidae). The species, which according to its German name is almost exclusively distributed in Venezuela , is one of the tree-dwelling tarantulas. Like several other tarantula species, it is very popular as a terrarium animal.
features
The females of Psalmopoeus irminia reach a body length of 5 to 7 cm. The opisthosoma shows paired orange-colored horizontal stripes in the form of a herringbone pattern on a black background. The velvety hair of the abdomen and the color pattern reminiscent of a tiger skin has given this tarantula the name Venezuelan Sun Tiger ( Venezuelan Sun Tiger ). The orange longitudinal stripes on the metatarsi and tarsi are also noticeable . The legs are hairy long, the hairiness of the tibia and patellae up to the tarsi often shows a gray-blue color. The prosoma is smooth on the top and has a metallic sheen.
The males are much smaller than the females and less colorful. Their coloring is reminiscent of the somewhat larger related species Psalmopoeus cambridgei . The drawing on the abdomen is not very clear and is sometimes completely absent. The legs are more hairy than those of the females. The males become sexually mature at around one and a half years. After the last moult, they are uniformly gray, with a greenish shimmering prosoma, a slightly brownish opisthosoma and faded longitudinal stripes over the tarsi and metatarsi of all pairs of legs. They then only live for several weeks or months. The females need 2 to 3 years to reach sexual maturity and can live up to twelve years.
Young animals can be recognized by the fact that their metatarsi, located near the tip of their feet, are entirely orange to light beige in color. Their basic color is not completely black until the 5th or 6th moult, especially the prosoma has a red-brown to beige color.
One of the characteristics that are known from all species of the genus Psalmopoeus is the stridulation organ , with which the spider can produce sounds. Unlike many other North and South American tarantula species, this genus has no irritable hair on its abdomen that it could use as a defense mechanism.
male
Male on coconut leaf
Freshly skinned female
Female on cork bark
Occurrence
The species lives in Venezuela and neighboring Guyana . It occurs in the forest areas of the Orinocodeltas and in the Gran Sabana . The Orinoco flows into the Atlantic Ocean in northeast Venezuela , the Gran Sabana is a 450,000 square kilometer plateau in the southeast of the country. Both regions offer a warm, humid climate . Furthermore, an isolated occurrence in Pacaraíma (a community in the northwest of the state of Roraima in Brazil ) is known.
Psalmopoeus irminia lives in tree crevices, knotholes or the caves under the roots of fallen trees. She lines her shelter with a web of spider silk, which is often reinforced by soil or parts of plants. At first, the offspring do not weave a web of living space, but dig themselves into the earth.
Way of life
Psalmopoeus irminia leads a hidden way of life. In the event of danger, it usually retreats quickly into its living space. Their diet consists of insects and other small animals in their natural habitat .
As a tree dweller, Psalmopoeus irminia has particularly large adhesive pads ( scopulae ) that extend over the tarsi and metatarsi. They consist of a large number of fine adhesive hairs that are branched at their ends. The spider can climb even on smooth surfaces, such as the walls of terrariums, if these show slight traces of moisture due to adhesive forces. Movable spikes embedded in the scopula detach the leg links from their subsurface. Another way for the spider to move around in its biotope is to run quickly and jump over short distances or from ledges.
Reproduction and development
Before mating, which can take place between December and June, the male weaves a so-called sperm net. This is where the sperm is collected, which is then absorbed into the bulbs of the pedipalps . Only after these preparations does the male look for a female. It is probably guided by certain pheromones , chemical messenger substances that can be given off by the females and perceived by the males. As soon as the male has found the net of a female, he drummed against the net with the pedipalps and sometimes with the second and third pair of legs. These vibrations are perceived by the female through special sensory organs that are mainly located on the spider's legs. The mating is usually harmless for the male, it is not killed by a poison bite, as is the case with many other spider species, but at most chased away from the vicinity of the female.
When mating , the chitin clips ( cymbium ) of the pedipalps must be precisely matched to the sexual opening of the female. According to this lock and key principle , mating with a female of another species is not possible. In the female, egg production is only stimulated by the transfer of the sperm packets into their own containers, the spermatheks . About eight weeks after copulation, the entrances to the nest are closed and a cocoon made of spider silk is prepared. After another month, the female lays 80 to 150 eggs in the cocoon. After three weeks, the young spiders hatch and moult twice inside the cocoon. Then they leave the cocoon and, after a while, the mother's web of living space. They molt every two to three weeks.
As with some other species of tarantulas, the female can produce a second or third egg cocoon with fertilized eggs after a single mating. However, the number of eggs decreases from cocoon to cocoon. The female does not molt during this time, since the male's semen in the spermatheks would be lost with each molt.
Web links
Psalmopoeus irminia in the World Spider Catalog
- Psalmopoeus irminia Many additions and additional information to (Venezuela ornament tarantula) Psalmopoeus irminia
literature
- F. Saager: Psalmopoeus irminia sp. n., description of a new Aviculariinae (Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae, genus Psalmopoeus) including a comparison with Psalmopoeus cambridgei. Arthropoda, 2, pp. 59–71, 1994 (first description)
- Hans W. Kothe: tarantulas. 1st edition, Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-4400-9367-0
- Günther Schmidt: The tarantulas. Westarp Sciences, 2003 ISBN 3-8943-2899-1
- Rainer F. Foelix: Biology of the spiders. Thieme, 1979 ISBN 3-1357-5801-X
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bertani, Rogerio; de Sena Santos, Arthur; Diesel Abbeg, Arthur; Roncolatto Ortiz, Flora & de Freitas, Marco Antonio (2016): First record of the genus Psalmopoeus (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in Brazil. Check List, 12 (2: 1860). DOI 10.15560 / 12.2.1860
- ↑ Psalmopoeus irminia profile at Birdspiders from October 1, 2008 (German)
- ^ Stanley A. Schultz and Marguerite J. Schultz: The Tarantula Keeper's Guide: Comprehensive Information on Care, Housing, and Feeding. 2nd edition, Barron's Educational Series, New York 2009, p. 100 ISBN 0-7641-3885-5