Rattlesnake T

[Brendan Stent]

Hi all,
Some of you may have seen the post on the Rattlesnake T, well she shed and I took some photos which I forwarded to Steve Nunn. To say Steve was excited may be an understatement but he has posted his view about it here.

http://theata.org/forum/index.php?topic=1249.msg8342;topicseen#msg8342

I thought this spider was significant but didn't expect it to be that significant so you could say I am also a little thrilled.
Cheers
Brendan

[Toran Tanner]

wow very unreal would love to see in person. Has there been any breeding attempts yet

[Brendan Stent]

Hi,
At this stage she is the only specimen in captivity but there are plans to find a mate at the least for her. Unfortunately the region she came from has been in a drought for over a decade and the evidence I saw when I collected her suggested it has devastated the population. There were several burrows near her's that were abandoned and had been that way for some time and I was unable to locate any other burrows that may have held another live specimen.

[James Box]

amazing!
isn't that the problem in some parts of Australia, long periods of dry weather, where the indigenous fauna dig in and hibernate to some degree?
maybe that's why this genus has only now been found?
if i'm not completely wrong on that, it could be a while til there are more found, i guess...
that stridulation is just fantastic

[Colin D Wilson]

Good stuff Brendan, like i've said before awsome discovery, congratulations.

[Brendan Stent]

Good stuff Brendan, like i've said before awsome discovery, congratulations.

Thanks Colin
As for the recent discovery I don't know whether to put it down to the climate more so than the area is sparsely populated and there are not that many people to cover the vast area we have here that would be interested in digging up a spider.

[Colin D Wilson]

Well it's about time the ATA sponsered some "diggers" from over here in the UK
What do you think to that idea, i think you'd be inundated with offers if you could.

Please keep this thread updated with any updates if you can mate, it'll be muchly appreciated by us all over here.

Regards

Colin

[Elaine Ross]

Excellent!!!! The stridulation certainly sounds like a rattler. Fascinating. Such a shame that more werent found in the area due to the drought.

I look forward to hearing more.

[mary walters]

Absolutely brilliant Brendan, hats off to you mate

[Andrew Ferguson]

Its sounds more like its talking that rattling. Very cool indeed!

[Brendan Stent]

Apparently some have thought this may have been an April Fool's but I would like to reassure you all it is not. I played my April Fool's on a close family friend and got him good.
I will keep updating on how things go with this new specimen.

[Colin D Wilson]

I read all about that prank....bit close to the edge that one but brilliant all the same. Revenge is sweet eh?.

Thanks for posting and confirming it is genuine, like i said i had a few emails about the validity of the tarantula (some from friends who just browse this site as guests and are not members YET !!...you know who you are !!!!)

Like i say updates welcome and needed.

[Brendan Stent]

Steve Nunn has had a look at this specimen now and confirmed it is unlike anything he has seen here in OZ, even the spermetheca are different.
Here is a pic of the lyra

Cheers
Brendan

[Colin D Wilson]

Fascinating, sounds like Steve's impressed then !!

keep us up to date please Brendan

[Brendan Stent]

More like a kid in a candy shop when I took the live specimen and the exuvium around to see him