Those of you who keep M. robustum.....

[Lisa Ashforth]

.......what temperature (approx) do you keep them at?

I was keeping my mated female at normal room temperature and she seemed fine. When it started to turn cooler I moved her to my heated rack which gets upto 75F or so, and she got very agitated, coming out of her burrow and trying to climb the tank all night.

I've taken her off the rack and she has calmed back down. But I don't heat my house at night, and in winter it can get down to 60 or less at night, and I'm worried that'll be too cold for her.

I can't find a definitive temperature range for M. robustum. Suggested temperatures on different care sheets range from 60 to 85F.

Can anyone help please?

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Lisa, firstly, they're lovely T's, ours sticks her bum right up in the air if she's aggitated. She's on a rack where the temp is between 70-78F and she's fine, they do like more moist substrate than most, and I always make sure it's sprayed 2-3 times a week, and she immediately goes out onto it, otherwise she's calm and never climbs the tank. 60F is way too low for most T's imo

[Craig Mackay]

I keep mine around 75F dropping a few degrees at night and it seems pretty happy with that.

[stuart longhorn]

It's well worth trying to figure out the natural ranges of the species you keep, and then looking up the climate data.

In this case it seems wikipedia does half the work... just goto the Wiki page for Bogota (the capitial of Columbia) and you will see they have a wonderful annual climate chart. Im not going to link it as it should take a second to find with a search engine. The natural range of this species is near enough to Bogota for that climate data to be useful.

Whilst 60°F is indeed low for many species, not in the case of M.robustum. If you take a look at the average annual temperature for Bogota, you will see the usual average high is only about 67°F, and the average low about 43°F. These species like it cool, and often damp/wet. Infact - i dont keep mine on a heat mat at all. Maybe i'm just cheap on the electricity. They should be able to easily tolerate 75°F - but knowing they prefer lower temperatures, then i imagine it causes stress to get that warm (see record high of 82°F in Bogota). I imagine Craig's has acclimatised to 75°Fover a long period, and i know he is well-experienced in keeping various species. But, lower temps would be more natural - infact Bogota is often reported as 'fresh' or 'chilly' by european visitors. Quite simply, room teperature 68°F to 77°F will be just fine, and in my opinion much more ideal than using a heat-source.

Best wishes
stuart

[Martin Huber]

Hi,

The natural range of this species is near enough to Bogota for that climate data to be useful.

according to Dirk Weinmann (2003) during several field trips he couldn't find any M. robustum nearby Bogota. Nor in the Universidad de la Salle and the Universidad Nacional is material from Bogotá or surroundings. => seems that the info with the range "Bogotá" is wrong.
But Dirk could find them at lower elevations. See also:

• WEINMANN, D. (2001): Verbreitungsgebiet, Klimabedinungen und Mikroklima im Bau der Vogelspinne Megaphobema robustum in Kolumbien (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). Arthropoda 9(4): 12-15.

Cheers,
Martin

[stuart longhorn]

Hi Martin (and everyone),

Ok - I was partly trying to be vague on the climate - and found that using the location of Bogota itself gave a nice climate chart on the wiki page for reference...

Now, to be clear, I have not been to Columbia, so i cannot say myself from direct experience - but from my understanding of Dirk's fieldwork (and a fieldwork video in german) the species is found close enough to Bogota for the climate data to be a relatively suitable approximation.

The original site says 'Llanos, Santa Fe de Bogotá'. (type site listed by Pocock 1901 (from Auss.)). Here llanos means 'lowland flat plains' surrounding the modern city of Bogotá (=Santa Fe de Bogotá). As with many 'old species' the specimens were likely caught in the surrounding countryside, then transported through the city for export (hence getting the less than accurate location of 'Bogotá assigned to it), so i agree that Bogotá alone is imprecise.

Indeed i agree on the specifics of the lowlands 'relatively' near-to Bogotá, rather than Bogotá per se. Im not sure how far from Bogotá the reality is. I understand that Bogotá city is situated in the altiplano environment (high plains/high plateau), therefore i suspect indeed colder than where the species is actually found. I should therefore really recommend, if we want to get specific, not using such low temperatures as found at Bogotá itself (ie strongly advise against going as low as 43°F), but keep on average warmer temperatures (with an educated guess, of min 55°F), reflecting the actual habitat of the lowlands 'relatively' near-to Bogotá....

Martin, if you could hint about another city/major location that is more suitable for the REAL location of the species than Bogotá, that would be useful for us all to agree on the most suitable approximate climate data.

Best Wishes, and thanks for the correction. Must go book some flights to Columbia now and see how far from Bogota the species really is...

stuart

[Radosław Peliński]

I keep my at 18-20 *c and alter it to 24-26 after m8ting , with succes till now :]

[Lisa Ashforth]

It's well worth trying to figure out the natural ranges of the species you keep, and then looking up the climate data.

I'd tried looking up climate details for Colombia, but there was a wide variance throughout the country and I was not able to find out where M. robustum was to be found there.

Dirk could find them at lower elevations. See also:

• WEINMANN, D. (2001): Verbreitungsgebiet, Klimabedinungen und Mikroklima im Bau der Vogelspinne Megaphobema robustum in Kolumbien (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). Arthropoda 9(4): 12-15.

Cheers,
Martin

Has anyone ever translated this into English please? Or could you send me a copy of the German article as I have a German friend who might translate it for me.

I keep my at 18-20 *c and alter it to 24-26 after m8ting , with succes till now :]

That's good news Radosław. In the end I put her on top of my snake's vivarium (at the cool end) so she has some very gentle heat. She seems happy and settled there (and very fat!) Approximately how long after mating do they normally take to drop a sac? She was last paired on September 19th.

[Radosław Peliński]

it took 3 months for me


if i corectly imagined where your female isplaced its not the best spot in my opinion .
heating it shouldnt be from bottom , the moist moves unnaturaly over the eggsack and may overwet it

also female naturally muves eggsack deeper when it feels theres 2 hot for it , so worm bottom might stress her when the eggsack get laid



If its not a problem for you plz send me all data you will get with that breeding via PM , I am in proces ( vary slooowly :P ) of writting article bout them and their breeding

[Lisa Ashforth]

hmmmm I hadn't thought of that, I will move her tank

If I'm lucky enough to get a sac from her, I'll write a report and PM it to you.

[Martin Huber]

Hi Lisa,

Or could you send me a copy of the German article as I have a German friend who might translate it for me.

sorry I can't do that, as long as you don't provide me an eMail address of yours where to send the article at!

all the best,
Martin

[Lisa Ashforth]

Hi Lisa,

sorry I can't do that, as long as you don't provide me an eMail address of yours where to send the article at!

all the best,
Martin

silly me, PM on its way