A few pictures from Peru

[wesley flower]

great pics

[Martin Nicholas]

Seems that the Granada / PBS show "T.A.O.T. Ultimate Spiderhunter" that I did a couple of years ago is unlikely to get shown on terrestrial TV in the UK as it was a one-off and networks tend to show series (like Life in Cold Blood, Life in the Undergrowth etc etc)

You can buy a Region 1 DVD of it from the PBS online shop (I'm not plugging - I don't get royalties for this one!)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/shop/spiderhunter.html

or as a double header with a snake show on Amazon.com.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Spiders-Snakes-Martin-Nicholas/dp/B000EHQUR6/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1205501728&sr=1-11"]Amazon.com: Nature: Spiders and Snakes: Martin Nicholas: Movies & TV[/ame]

Keep an eye out for a show called "animal oddities" on National Geographic Channel which should be out in the Spring.

Shamless Publicity statement ends!

[Chris Sainsbury]

Hey Martin

Suprised you haven't been contacted by Dominic Monaghan yet.........or have you?

All the best
Chris

[Nicola Dolby]

Thanks for the info Martin, think I might get my purse out of the mothballs this easter!

[Martin Nicholas]

As promised, a few more photos from the Peru Trip

1. Beauty shot of a large Phoneutria Wandering Spider.
2. Bright Yellow Salticae (Jumping spider)
3. A large orb weaver (Araneus sp - or similar) makes webs 1.5M diameter.
4. The perils of rainforest life! - a moth infected by a parasitic fungi. Not a spider but macabre and beautiful in its way!

[Taki Tsonis]

Brilliant pics as always Martin. You changing my mind about my next holiday destination with every post

[mary walters]

Lovely Pics Martin, shame about the poor moth and I love the yellow jumper, not the phonutria though yuk

[Nicola Dolby]

Why does everyone hate Phoneutrias? They're a beautiful spider, just because they're bite is a bit tasty they shouldn't be reviled. I'd love to keep some, Just my Housing Association are behaving like Kartman off of South Park. (asserting their "authority").

[Martin Nicholas]

I absolutely love that description of Phoneutria's bite, Nicola and intend to plagiarise it shamelesly in future presenting jobs!

Another tasty biter follows - Ctenidae sp. Highly aggressive and when disturbed would jump around 10 inches toward the forceps

And I love this shot of a Hummingbird feeding from a ginger plant - this one goes in the book (when I write it!)

[mary walters]

Phonutria look so much like SPIDERS, you know, tegenaria and such, and I am scared of spiders, all of em, tarantulas included........................after about 20 years I can JUST about put Cyriocosomus pairs together, and that only over last few months.

[Nicola Dolby]

Firstly thanks Martin, you can plagerise my forum comments anytime!

Mary I'm sorry if my comments seemed insensitive, I used to be really afraid of spiders myself so I can empathise. Its just something which seems to crop up a lot recently about Phoneutria, not just your post. I used to look at Phoneutria sp. and go Eeek (I still do at P. boliviensis) but then I read a thread on the tarantula store forum from someone keeping P. keyserlingi. He was so enthusiastic about his spiders, like I am about my tarantulas, that I thought maybe I'm missing something here. The spider didn't look too bad, and now I'm really into them. What really upsets me though is the venom issue. We are so keen to demonise these animals (even the word Phoneutria means murderess), yet it is not their fault that they evolved with venom lethal to primates because the local population of monkeys like to eat big, hairy spiders; nor is it their fault that humans also happen to be primates. As for their 'aggression', I'd be jumpy if I came from the Amazon region and aggresive if someone poked me with their finger or a pencil! Truth is that I keep 'aggresive spiders such as H. lividium, H. schmidti and P. murinus and my lot are as soft as kittens. This is because they're living in the right conditions, they always have food and water and they are left in peace to do their thing. A dog will turn on you if you keep bothering it, so why label a spider like that?
Anyway, I'm forever reading about your successes with breeding tarantulas, so they must like you!

Good luck and sorry again if I upset you, it wasn't intended.