Rarer Grammostola species

[Kathy Akrigg]

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone breeding species such as the following as I am hoping to look seriously into buying some in the New Year (can't before Christmas due to 3 teenagers bleeding Santa dry lol).

G. formosa
G. alticeps
G. mollicoma (I am yet to work out for sure if that is not just a synonym of the above as there seems to be a lot of dispute on the sites I have read)
G. burzaquensis

Thanks very much

Kathy

[Craig Mackay]

Hi Kathy,

I'm not sure if there are any G. burzaquensis in the hobby in the UK. If there are there will be very few and little chance of any breedings. Here's a picture of one by Pato from Argentina over on AP.

There are some G. formosa about but you are probably better off looking to Europe to buy them. There isn't really much in the way of regular breeding. It's all very sporadic, relying on males being in the right place at the right time and a lot of luck.

G. mollicoma was made a junior synonym of G. anthracina last year so anthracina is the correct name now. As above, breeding is quite sporadic but larger spiders are occassionally available for sale throughout the year.

The spider shop has adult female G. alticeps in stock just now.

Hope that helps.

[Kathy Akrigg]

Thanks Craig - I saw the alticeps at Doncaster and fell in love but didn't have the funds at the time. I suspect the adult females will all be sold by the time Christmas has passed, and I can't justify spending before then with three teens to cater to lol. I decided to start looking to those who *do* buy them to see if any are planning matings next year. I must admit to being totally confused over the alticeps/mollicoma/anthracina situation. It might help if I could find someone to explain in laymen's terms what we have in the hobby and under what names, if that makes sense. I was under the impression that the alticeps at TSS were considered mollicomas. My head goes round in circles on this the more I read on the forums as everyone seems to believe differently on this subject and there seems to be very little agreement. What I really want is the smokey grey velvety appearing chunky T, like a pale pulchra with longer legs. I know that regardless of name, the TSS spiders are that spider. I would be very interested in the other species too just because I have a bit of a thing for grammies and would like to breed in future. What I don't want to do is buy spiders that I don't know are the same species and mess it all up even more. Does that make any sense? Thanks ever so much for your help and advice!

[Craig Mackay]

I understand your concerns but unfortunately I wouldn't be much help. Grammies aren't really my thing and I don't know too much about them. One thing I should have pointed out earlier is that there isn't a valid species called G. formosa. It's an undescribed species and should be referred to as Grammostola sp. formosa. They are nice spiders though. Kinda like G. pulchra but a little lighter and hairier.

The anthracina situation is confusing because in the hobby, people considered there to be two different variants that were sold as mollicoma, a northern and a southern variant. I'm not sure what the differences between them are but from what I gather, the spider considered to be the real mollicoma had brick red setae under the femora. I'm not sure what the situation is now that mollicoma have been synonymised with anthracina, what it means for the two variants/species we have sold as mollicoma or where alticeps fits in.

[Peter Roach]

Martin Goss has some Grammostola iheringi and G.grossa . . . . http://www.martingoss.co.uk/Theraphosid.html

[Kathy Akrigg]

Thanks both of you, I really appreciate the help. I am hoping Martin Goss doesn't sell out before I get a chance to spend some money on non-Christmas stuff! I didn't realise formosa should be Grammostola sp. formosa. I will remember that in future. Thanks again!