Went to the store for crickets, came back with this... (spider, spider)

[Kevin P]

I feed my VFT's small crickets a few times each season, and went to our resident herp and exotics shop yesterday to pick up a dozen or so when I got... distracted. They had expanded their bug section quite a lot since last I had been there, and I was too weak to resist.

Meet my new Acanthogonatus francki, a smallish tarantula-like mygalomorph spider from the family Nemesiidae. This has proven a very cooperative photographic subject... my G. rosea perhaps excepted, I've never had another spider that seemed to care so little about a camera invading its personal space. Neat little beast, and with very modest space requirements (even this adult is only a little more than 2.5" big - great given the limits of my 700 sq. foot apartment). Wouldn't mind having a dozen or so more, but one will have to suffice for now.







Oh, and yes. The crickets were bought as well.

 

[Dragoness]

Awesome pictures. Second spider picture almost looks timid.

I have never had much luck trying to feed my plants live insects. Don't know why. Every attempt ended in a dying, rotting trap, no matter what insect I used. (crickets, ants, cockroach nymphs)

My indoor plants get plenty of fruit flies on their own, as I can't seem to rid the house of the little buggers. The outdoor ones catch everything, and don't seem to have any problems.

 

[Not a Number]

The flytrap photo if it has enough resolution could be a calendar photo hopeful

 

[DragonsEye]

Nice critter. Understand care is very similar to G. rosea.

 

[Kevin P]

It's a cutey to be sure. Acanthogonatus sounds like a pretty hardy genus, so I'm sure they'd adapt well to a variety of care conditions. Food + water + dirt in a box seems to be about the extent of their needs - they web like mad, adjusting pretty much whatever you could throw at them into their desired habitat.

 

[Tanukimo]

There is something about those eyes in the third picture that make me want to keep staring at them. What an interesting creature.

 

[Kevin P]

There is something about those eyes in the third picture that make me want to keep staring at them. What an interesting creature.

Aye. I've been keeping tarantulas and their ilk since I was just 6 years old, and I still can't help staring and staring. Arachnids are fascinating animals, all.

 

[Kevin P]

A couple of more pics. Not at all sure about the ID on this one any more, as it doesn't seem to match the type description of A. francki (shock of shocks, a potentially mis-labelled bulk-collected imported spider?), but it's not a huge deal. I'm comfortable enough with just Acanthogonatus sp. for now, and hope to positively ID it once I have a molt in hand. Until then I am perfectly content to observe it in ignorance.





I suppose I should mention that it has a friend as well, another Acanthogonatus sp. purchased from the same shop. The ID on this one was positively bunk (it was labelled as A. vilches, an obscure species known only from a holotype female collected in 1989), but I was well aware of that when I opted to buy it. This is more likely than not Acanthogonatus pissii, which a molt should confirm or deny. Beautiful spider regardless.



Also, some light reading for anyone interested in the genus.