More New Tarantulas!

**Taceas** · 04-27-07, 04:17 AM

Today a shipment came in from Southern Spider Works and it contained 0.0.4 Grammostola pulchra and one teeny-tiny freebie Grammostola aureostriata.

I've been looking for a G. pulchra for months now, but they are insanely hard to get ahold of here in the US for decent prices. Most people are selling adult females for $200-400, which is a fair bit out of my price range.

However SSW got in a recent shipment from Germany and they were moderately priced, so I got 4 in hopes to spread out my chances of getting at least one female. But it'll be a few years at best before they grow up to any size that I can sex them at. But lets all think very feminine thoughts in the meantime.

G. pulchra's are your basic big black velvety tarantula, and most are pretty docile in temperament. I don't handle my tarantulas anyway, but its nice to know its not going to eat my hand off when I'm doing cage maintenance.

The freebie G. aureostriata:

One of the G. pulchra's, they're all pretty much the same size and look the same:

*I apologize for the quality of the pictures, I'm still working on this crappy laptop with basic software.

I'm expecting another shipment of juvenile wild caught Aphonopelma hentzi from Oklahoma as well. A guy on an arachnid forum I frequent is collecting them from a 30 acre site a developer is starting to destroy for new subdivisions. Sadly, its the one threat wild tarantulas can't cope with, habitat loss.

**Taceas** · 05-02-07, 08:55 PM

Finally downloaded a trial version of the photo program I typically use (since I can't find my bloody install CD), to help speed picture editing along. =P

Here are pictures of the new Aphonopelma hentzi tarantulas from Bartlesville, Oklahoma that I received on Saturday. The largest is around 3" in leg span and the smallest is 1.75" in leg span. They typically max out in the 4-5" range from what I've heard. The sexes of these guys is unknown at this point.

The common name for these guys is Oklahoma Brown or Texas Brown. They're pretty widespread throughout the South and Southwest, with each area having their own local variety with varying color forms. These guys also extend up into southern Missouri and occasionally into Illinois or Tennessee.

They're pretty docile, and you really have to prod them to get them to move, but I'm still not going to hold them. They aren't prone to kicking their urticating hairs unlike some New World terrestrials, and are hardy and aggressive feeders. Hopefully they do well in my small but continually growing collection. =)