A few pictures from Peru

[Martin Nicholas]

My annual pilgramage to train the Amazon Guides on arachnids is always hectic but in between talks I get to go out and take a few photos so hot off the SD card heres a selection.

I'd be interested to have anyones thoughts on the funky, white fluffy spider in the first 2 photos body length about 50mm - my vote is for Heteropodidae or maybe Sparassidae but it was a surprise and I've never seen it before.

Argiopes with a very pronounced stabilimenta - something interesting is that the juveniles produce a "lace doyley" style circular stabi that it evolves into the classic St Andrews Cross when mature.

A very large Avicularia sp web on the side of a Plantain - as always species unknown!

Lastly - well I couldn't go to Peru and NOT take a picture of my friend the Poultry Arachnid could I?!!!!! Heres two big Juveniles living together - no sign of the adult in this burrow but they did share with a frog (Microhylidae sp)

[Toran Tanner]

5 thats it come man you can do better than that. LOL nice photo's did you bring me back a chicken spider? LOL that 1st is very nice looking how many did you come across?

[Martin Nicholas]

Call it a teaser Toran! after being a bit scarce the last few years, Chicken Spiders are making a comeback big time and I found 5 burrows on 2 short night-walks but as always this was a taking-photos and leaving footprints trip!

I only found one of these white-jobs and have never seen it before in 8 visits - its pretty unusual right?

[SylviRigden]

They are nice photos, although I can't help you with the species. I rather envy you the trip to Peru, do you base yourself in one area or travel about seeing guides from different areas? Is this so that they know what to show the tourists?

[Colin D Wilson]

Good stuff again Martin, that can't be all there was on the SD card......!!

That Funky, fuzzy spider is a little cracker, maybe someone will ID it on here....beats me though..

Not sure about there only being 1 CS picture, remember the chat at the lectures, i'm sure the idea of the trip was for many, many pictures.....teasers are not allowed

Colin

[Martin Nicholas]

Colin - Less is always more!.. however it will always be difficult to top the picture of the Chicken Spider with the 80 juveniles (see the Tarantulas in the wild gallery) I will drip in some more photos over the next week or so- promise!

Silvi - thats exactly what the trip is for - these are trainee rainforest guides who are there to learn about all the animals and plants so they can take tourists into the forest when they qualify. I'm hired to do Arachnids for them - there were about 40 trainees on the course, all good naturalists in their own right and obviously they are VERY well trained now!

By the way - (and before Mr. Pennell comes round with a baseball bat stuck with 9" nails for starting this up again!) please don't let us make this another Chicken Spider thread again! - I recon everything that can be, has already been thrashed out in many (many) previous threads. PM me if you want to know any specifics, I'll be happy to answer but give the poor old Webmaster a break!
M

[Colin D Wilson]

Colin - Less is always more!.. however it will always be difficult to top the picture of the Chicken Spider with the 80 juveniles (see the Tarantulas in the wild gallery) I will drip in some more photos over the next week or so- promise!

Photo's of ALL wildlife you encountered would be great Martin, Thanks.

By the way - I recon everything that can be, has already been thrashed out in many (many) previous threads.

Agreed... moderation will be HEAVY on this thread as this topic has run its course a few times

PM me if you want to know any specifics, I'll be happy to answer

Please read through all the other threads first to check the infomation you require hasn't been discussed, chances are it will be mentioned somewhere.

Thanks

Colin

[James Box]

great pics, Martin! looking forward to seeing more
love that funky white spider...what sort of size was it?

[Mark Pennell]

Martin
That argiope looks very similar to one we found in Sarawak, did it make webs very close to the tree trunk or wall.

The one we found was known as a tree trunk spider, and had bright red markings on the undersides.

Obviously not the exact same due to location.

Cheers
Mark

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Martin,
Did you bring any specimens of the fuzzy spid back? If so I know of a very good home for a couple of them! Great pictures, and thanks for more of the Colonel Sanders spid!

[Martin Nicholas]

Hi MArk, these Argiopes were really common this year, previous times they have been hard to find. Pics don't do justice to how Silver they are - really metalic looking.

Hey Nicola, No I did not bring anything back apart from about 200 sand-fly bites! It is a cool spider though!

James - the white spider had a body length around 5cm, legspan about 10cm.

[Richard Gallon]

Martin,
"Heteropodidae or maybe Sparassidae" (these two families are synonymous with Sparassidae taking priority).

Not sure what the white job is, perhaps a Selenopidae?

I didn't know P. antinous were communal...

lol
Richard

[James Box]

James - the white spider had a body length around 5cm, legspan about 10cm.

that's a fairly sizeable little fella! definitely want one...if at some point they ever choose to make a new life in the UK...i'll happily put them up

[Martin Nicholas]

I didn't know P. antinous were communal...

lol
Richard[/QUOTE]

Don't make me hurt you!
lol

[Nicola Dolby]

I hope this isn't a daft question, but when are we going to see you doing your spider stuff on British television again Martin? Also, the work you've done for US telly, any of those on arachnids and available on DVD? I have a Region 1 player so watching American DVD's wouldn't be a problem.