Popularity of Aphonopelma in UK

[Christian Elowsky]

I was having lunch with Joy Reed, who had made it last year to a BTS gathering, and she informed me that Aphonopelma spp. earn higher prices than Poecilotheria spp. While I have no reason to doubt this, I thought I'd inquire about this trend.

Anyone have any input on the popularity of Aphonopelma spp. in the UK or Europe in general?

Thanks for humoring me.

Christian

[Adam Smith]

Aphonopelma are quite sort after as there doesnt seem to be many breeding them whether that is lack of adults in peoples collections or if people turned there attention to pokies and left the aphonopelma so they are a bit more. It would be the same if they turned their attention to aphonopelma and left the pokies the price would be higher. The only time I have seen A chalcodes for example is from spidershop which is recent and I saw them at BTS show last year £8 each and regret not picking them up. There are very few that seem to breed A moderatum, A hentzi, A crinita, A pallidum and various others. bearing in mind some of these names that I have used may have changed than what i refer to them from the book I have. Either way I would like to see more available

[Mikhail F. Bagaturov]

Hello Christian...
I believe that was joke.
Somebody's might-have-been dreams, I believe.

[Christian Elowsky]

I have seen Aphonopelma and Brachypelma which have much much higher prices than Poecilotheria, but I think this is mostly based on AGE as it can take decades to mature those species while Poecilotheria can cycle through many generations in the same time!

[Ray Gabriel]

Hi,

I have been very interested in the North American Aphonopelma for years, trouble is they very rarely make it across the pond to the UK, and when they do they are in such small numbers that the prices are stupidly high.

I was looking to import from one US dealer who at the time was charging something like $3 for adult chalcodies and hentzi, $5 for moderatum, and things liek Carlsbad greens and Flagstaf oranges were a few dolalrs each also.

I spoke with a few brits and we were looking at maybe getting 50-80 of each species between us so we couldstart breeding them, so when i said how many we wanted i was told the MINIMUM order was $5000.00

$5000.00 of wild caught Aphonopelmas is one huge amount of of spiders, it would take me all my life to sell that many, so we didnt bother.

There is a market for US Aphonopelmas over here, are sensibly priced to make then viable for someone to import in quantity and make a profit on...i am not talking about the price of the spiders i am refering to the amount you would need to order.............I would exchange Pokes for W/C Aphonopelmas of named species (not common names) chalcodies, hentzi, etc.

For future referance anyone wanting to work with Aphonopelmas should read Bearg.

Ray

[Adam Smith]

Hi,

I have been very interested in the North American Aphonopelma for years, trouble is they very rarely make it across the pond to the UK, and when they do they are in such small numbers that the prices are stupidly high.

I was looking to import from one US dealer who at the time was charging something like $3 for adult chalcodies and hentzi, $5 for moderatum, and things liek Carlsbad greens and Flagstaf oranges were a few dolalrs each also.

I spoke with a few brits and we were looking at maybe getting 50-80 of each species between us so we couldstart breeding them, so when i said how many we wanted i was told the MINIMUM order was $5000.00

$5000.00 of wild caught Aphonopelmas is one huge amount of of spiders, it would take me all my life to sell that many, so we didnt bother.

There is a market for US Aphonopelmas over here, are sensibly priced to make then viable for someone to import in quantity and make a profit on...i am not talking about the price of the spiders i am refering to the amount you would need to order.............I would exchange Pokes for W/C Aphonopelmas of named species (not common names) chalcodies, hentzi, etc.

For future referance anyone wanting to work with Aphonopelmas should read Bearg.

Ray

So Aphonopelma are more widely available in US than over here. Stands to reason I guess when they can be collected locally form say, someones who resides in the area they habitually live in. Though $5000 is an awful lot to take from the wild. Are the Americans not as strict on the WC selection, I understand that WC need to be collected to breed in captivity and to produce new bloodlines but that seems like an awful lot. Either way it is interesting and be nice to see some more over here. Have any of the Aphonopelma sp that are listed on the sp list in "The tarantula keepers hand book" Schlutz & Schlutz sligthly dated and any names changed or any that were renamed to date?

[KJ Vezino]

If you want to keep up on updated names you should reference the World Spider Catalog.

http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/THERAPHOSIDAE.html

There are between 20 and 30 species native to the US, but only a handful of them are in the hobby. I belive that most dealers here do not sell WC spiders, except on occasion, but as you stated they do collect them for breeding. But I'm not sure what the exportes are doing. It seems like wild collecting 50-80 of several different species would be difficult. But sending you a sac from each species would be much easier.

There's got to be someone over here that you guys could work with to get them imported at a better price.

[Adam Smith]

Im surprised that with Scott and Michael being in US and being BTS US reps as well something could come of that but that could be another idea for future.

[Mikhail F. Bagaturov]

As I know species like Aphonopelma chalcodes, Aph. bicoloratum, A. stoicum (?) are readily available in Europe. Recently I got adult WC female A. chalcodes from Europe for the smae price I got the adult female Citarischius crawshayi and thye price not even close to juve Poec. metallica...
And as we speak about Aph. bicoloratum they're plenty in Germany and Czech for prices alike 35 Euro for sub-adult female... juves even less, near 15 bucks each...
Sure, most other US-Mexico species are rarely seen here, but even were I don't believe they will costs as much as Poeclotheria metallica, for example or even P. subfusca...