Grammastola questions - Ron Baxter's book

[James Box]

I suddenly feel more confused than before reading this...

I wish people would stop importing things under various names....or....just import them under specific names like:

Grammostola sp."North 24th Jan 2009". At least then it'd be easier to seperate the various imports of what might be different animals or just regional variation.

a collection date as well as locality would DEFINITELY help keep things separate!!! good proposal, would be nice to see that implemented.

[Colin D Wilson]

I agree ... date of import and maybe a "keyword" would be useful.

slightly off genus topic here but Elaine categorised her "kwitara" Avics with import dates and a keyword...

eg Avicularia sp "Kwitara river" Oct 2009 (large form)

works for us.

[John chambers]

There was a distinct difference between the two seperate imports of (first import) Grammostola sp "northern gold" and (second import) Grammostola sp "north" .... those advertised as Norths were gifted with long setae, where-as the northern golds were just like a small rosea when they first came in

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2745[/ATTACH]Photo Credit goes to Lee at "The Spider Shop" which was used as reference when they first were imported.

The top one looks just like my porteri lol.
She still not eating even after doing a good moult!.

[Roger Dixon]

Is anyone collecting exemplars for DNA testing to sort out this problem? Any generous millionaires out there who can assist? A big problem with the taxonomy of collectible species is that they are described in captivity rather than ex-habitat. How many of the taxa in the hobby are hybrids?