Avicularia

Avicularia minatrix

Avicularia is a genus with about forty medium to South America, tree-dwelling tarantulas species. The name comes from the Latin adjective " avicularius ," which translates to German " bird -like " means. The first Vogelspinnenart was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Aranea avicularia (now Avicularia avicularia ). This species was recorded by the German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian in an image already in the 17th century.

Features

The habit of this species of spider is adapted to the arboreal life. They have thick hair pads on the wide tarsi which in many species such as light pink shoes look at the Tarsenenden. All Avicularia species have stinging hairs on the abdomen. Many males have apophyses on the tibiae of the first pair of walking legs. Rarely on the tibiae of the first and second run leg pair ( Avicularia hirsuta, Avicularia Avicularia seladonia and zorodes ) or sometimes no apophyses ( Avicularia minatrix, Aviculara recifiensis and Avicularia versicolor). The anterior row is always prokurv.

The juveniles of many Avicularia species have the typical Christmas tree pattern on the abdomen ( opisthosoma ). Red, blue, pink background with a black longitudinal stripes and some stripes. The type Avicularia minatrix but this pattern also have the adult animals. Adult animals are about three ( Avicularia minatrix ) to nine centimeters ( Avicularia huriana ) large. Many adult animals have long whitish hairs on the buttons, walking legs and abdomen.

Behavior

Avicularia are arboreal tarantulas. They inhabit natural gaps and openings, leaf and Astachsen, but built by other animals tree hollows. These are lined with a dream. In the web sometimes earth, leaves and twigs will be integrated in order to disguise it.

Since in their area of ​​distribution, temperatures can rise up to 40 degrees Celsius, some animals go into the water-filled goblets of bromeliad plants, where better to reign tolerable climatic conditions due to evaporation. Because the pineapple plantations are chemically treated, can be found there any animals. Since the bromeliads die after one year, the animals are forced to move.

The animals feed mainly on insects and small tree-dwelling vertebrates such as geckos, frogs and toads and birds (eg hummingbirds ).

The animals often defend themselves with their flaming hair occupied abdomen. They stretch the alleged attackers to the abdomen. In many species the females and the males live during the Begattungszeit in a common nest and mate there several times.

System

Most Avicularia species are native to the medium to the South American continent until about the 14th degree of latitude. A few are on the Lesser Antilles, Central America or Mexico. A single species may occur in a vast area of ​​distribution (eg, Guyana, along the Orinoco, the Amazon region by up to Ecuador and Peru) and coexist with other very similar species. Some species develop local subspecies and thus vary in size and color. This fact creates uncertainty in the systematic recording.

Some species that occur in a limited area of ​​distribution, such as islands, peninsulas or mountain forests, on the other hand can be determined very easily.

Additional systematic uncertainty arises from the fact that Raven aufführte 1985 Avicularia as a synonym for Eurypelma. Platnick therefore suspended all Eurypelma species in the Wold Spider Catalog in the genus Avicularia and these must now be taken out by the authors individually again.

Types (selection)

  • Avicularia avicularia, Linnaeus, 1758
  • Avicularia aurantiaca, Farmer, 1996
  • Avicularia minatrix, Pocock, 1903
  • Avicularia purpurea, Kirk, 1990
  • Avicularia Sooretama, Bertani & Fukushima, 2009
  • Avicularia versicolor ( Walckenaer, 1837)

Avicularia metallica, females

Avicularia minatrix, males

Avicularia purpurea, females

Attitude in the terrarium

As a pet such an animal should be housed in a rather large terrarium. In this part of the tree has to be modeled. This is best achieved with a piece of cork placed upright. A few plants round off the view and keep the humidity high.

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