Phymateus baccatus

Phymateus baccatus

Postby Westley Price » Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:44 pm

Hi guys

Seeing as we're all reptile enthusiasts, we often overlook the smaller, beautiful animals we often encounter. It is amazing how much beauty we miss if something is generally considered disgusting or a pest, or even just if the animal is too small to notice the detail.

Here in Namibia, every year in certain areas tons of Phymateus baccatus make their way onto the roads, apparently in the race to mate. Strangely, we mostly encounter females on the road, whereas I would have expected the males to pursue the females, but anyway.

HEre are a few pics.

Full body shot, just look at those leopard spots on the legs and thorax, as well as the pink "skin" where the legs join the thorax.

Image

Headshot, these close-ups always give inverts a mammal-like appearance

Image

And last but not least, the amazing threat display, love the colour and pattern on their wings!

Image

Thanx for looking.
"I am dying by inches from not having anybody to talk to about insects." - Charles Darwin
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Warren Klein » Fri Jun 13, 2014 5:35 pm

I think it's great that you are taking the time to highlight all the smaller "overlooked" species which are often even more interesting and more important to the ecosystem than the larger ones which attract the most attention.
An inaccurate naturalist is a pest and a danger, forever perpetuating illogical deductions and landing later naturalists in trouble. Damm and blast them all to hell in the most painful way. C.J.P. Ionides
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Westley Price » Fri Jun 13, 2014 8:50 pm

Thanx Warren

Ag photographing the inverts keeps me busy while looking for cool herps, haha. But I have to admit, my interest is definitely piqued.

I also have been keeping a bunch of Shield-backed Locusts, so will post pics of those next. It's amazing that we have such a great selection of inverts locally but we flock towards tarantuals and other boring stuff.
"I am dying by inches from not having anybody to talk to about insects." - Charles Darwin
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Warren Klein » Sat Jun 14, 2014 8:47 am

I wouldn’t say tarantulas are boring but I do agree that Southern Africa has great invert diversity of its own and I'm partial to our local Baboon spiders and scorpions. Please share any pics you take of the Namibian mygalomorph spiders you might come across while scratching around for herps. Nice photos too by the way.
An inaccurate naturalist is a pest and a danger, forever perpetuating illogical deductions and landing later naturalists in trouble. Damm and blast them all to hell in the most painful way. C.J.P. Ionides
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Poepstring » Sat Jun 14, 2014 6:54 pm

Real nice pics Westley,

its a very good thought to us all, its pointless considering ourselves naturalists or conservationists, by donating money towards rhino's and saving dolphins or whales, when we are real quick to pull out the Doom when camping , dispose old car oil incorrectly, flick a cigarette bud out the window or kill the venomous snake that was found too close to home...

But I don't think we should run down the exotic critters entirely, are we not keeping cb T's, inverts, reptiles etc. to protect our and the world's wildlife from the smuggle trade?
I would give my front teeth to keep some indigenous baboons & scorps, but it is against the law for a reason...
One adult wc female baboon spider kept in captivity eliminates the chance of future wild offspring completely. Even though the offspring may have faced a 1 in 60 chance of survival, it is still a chance her legacy could continue.
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Westley Price » Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:41 am

I should rather rephrase; I did not mean that exotic inverts are boring, but they are the first stop for anyone looking to keep inverts.

We have an awesome selection of legal spiders and scorpions you can collect in the field, not to mention stick insects (my personal favourite), moths, katydids, locusts etc.
"I am dying by inches from not having anybody to talk to about insects." - Charles Darwin
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Warren Klein » Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:46 pm

Code: Select all
are we not keeping cb T's, inverts, reptiles etc. to protect our and the world's wildlife from the smuggle trade?


I do not agree with this question/ statement, Many of us keep animals simply because we enjoy them and have a genuine interest in learning more about them. There are other more sinister motives as to why wildlife is smuggled and traded which we as keepers can do little to stop, however I do believe that reproducing animals in captivity relieves much of the need to collect from the wild when a captive source is available and a more favorable option to most enthusiast.

One adult wc female baboon spider kept in captivity eliminates the chance of future wild offspring completely. Even though the offspring may have faced a 1 in 60 chance of survival, it is still a chance her legacy could continue
.

One of the benefits of having a captive breeding population of any species is for us enthusiasts to have a source to get these animals without negatively impacting wild population but the founder animals have to come from the wild at some point to start a captive population. Depending on the species in question there are many other factors such as development and habitat loss which cause far greater impact to wild populations. Using Baboon spiders as an example, I have seen road work operations in the lowveld which have destroyed thousands of Baboon spiders in their burrows when bulldozers were used to widen roads.

Sorry for going a bit off topic here
An inaccurate naturalist is a pest and a danger, forever perpetuating illogical deductions and landing later naturalists in trouble. Damm and blast them all to hell in the most painful way. C.J.P. Ionides
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Re: Phymateus baccatus

Postby Poepstring » Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:52 pm

Hi Herphabitat

The emphasise is on captive bred specimens so I think you missed my point.

In context to the thread, it was not a statement that we eliminate sinister motived smuggling and save wild populations completely by doing the latter, in fact I was hinting towards the idea that for the sake of our interest to why we keep reptiles(include your reason here), inverts etc quite many samples have already been removed from the wild at one point to satisfy our need or interest. Due to this reason we should stick to the CB specimens and turn our backs on smuggled / wc animals to avoid more of the wild life to follow to suit, thus saving the wild life by keeping CB, regardless of your motive or need. Refer to the theory of supply and demand and it always starts with one...

I have been contemplating the general intentions of our laws for years, you may kill a leopard/puffadder, scorpion etc when it threatens your household and livestock, as long as you don't keep it without a permit! but growing older I started to realize that it does indeed make sense, human life comes first yes in some cases unfortunately, but you have to draw a line somewhere. Even in OZ where you may only keep indigenous animals, you still require a permit to keep one, so for the sake of keeping an individual, endangered specie collected from the wild to study or observe, I don't deny that it may be necessary, but I do say join a study group or association that will permit you close access to it, approach a zoo or HA which will gladly help or point you in the right direction should you want to do a thesis on a specie or study for the general good of the population that may have access to your findings. What benefit will a collection of endangered species do in a curious private individual's care when he doesn't share the information he/ she gathered?

I'm sure you have heard about the controversy about captive bred tigers in the states, one party want to ban keeping tigers due to risk of contamination with cross bred specie bloodlines, risk to lives & the incapability for CB Tigers to one day adapt to a wild life again. The other party is in dire opposition against it for the sake of conserving tigers that has almost vanished in the wild claiming that "at least it is a tiger that will never get poached or a specie to be lost in history due to man" regardless of their arsenal. Both are trying to do good, yet the one cant seem to support the others plight while Tigers are still being slaughtered at will in the wild daily despite people in the states spending billions in legal fees to either keep or remove the tigers...imagine they spent that money towards the nature reserves supposed to protect the animals in their natural environment.

It aint fair, nothing is... same goes for the Baboon spiders killed by road expansions but all of us that does care can make a little difference...it always starts with one...
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