# Mandy - my Southern Brown Tarantula



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

Mandy was out tonight in her tank in our kitchen (hot in the garage so she's inside in the air con). I've had her for about 7 years or so. She's a _Selenocosmia_ (or _Selenotypus_ depending on your view of the world) _stirlingii_. Named after Mandy Kotzman who did her Ph.D on the species in Southern NSW in the 1970's and 80's. She had a pile of slings soon after she was collected and hopefully they're well established in a few collections by now.

Sorry it's only a phone pic.


----------



## Renenet (Jan 1, 2012)

Mandy sounds very un-tarantula like, but makes sense on reading your post. What is she sitting on?


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

Renenet said:


> Mandy sounds very un-tarantula like, but makes sense on reading your post. What is she sitting on?



That's her "volcano". Substrate is cocopeat and they build a conical tower with their burrow down the middle. Its probably because they live on clay pans and this stops their burrows from becoming flooded. This is a pretty big specimen from what I've seen but nowhere as big as northern animals like _S.crassipes_ and allied species.


----------



## Wally (Jan 1, 2012)

That's a cool photo.


----------



## cracksinthepitch (Jan 1, 2012)

Nice T Hop, Things have changed over the last few years with names etc , Just an update on yours.
Its Selenotholus sp Kotzmans. They named the nsw population after Mandy as they found enough evidence to separate the species from S. stirlingi of South Australia and the NT. Further species have been found lately in the same genus which may confuse the issue much more in the future.
my female Kotz is 4 years old now and is 140mm legspan, (front left leg to back right leg). Cheers Cracks


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

Yes I meant _Selenthotholus_ not _Selenotypus_. Yet to see the peer reviewed paper revising the taxonomy though. I know Robert Raven has been revising the Theraphosids but until it's been published (and it may have been - I haven't kept up) they're all just hobby names as far as I'm concerned. It's like the _S.plumipes_ and _S.crassipes_ groups. All sorts of names floating around but I don't see the science behind the nomenclature.


----------



## Renenet (Jan 1, 2012)

How long do they live? Can you pick them up without being bitten?

Not that I'm planning on getting a spider any time soon, I'm just curious.


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

They will probably live for 15 years plus (females) under the right conditions (probably longer). Males die much younger after their final moult into adult hood (after mating). Some people do pick them up...I'm not a fan of this as bites are painful and can make you sick (no fatalities in Australia - or maybe anywhere for tarantulas). All recorded bites by Australian Theraphosids (tarantulas/bird eating spiders/whistling spiders) on dogs have been fatal to my knowledge - and rapidly so.


----------



## cracksinthepitch (Jan 1, 2012)

Raven has been reveiwing for over 10 years now, he is working on other projects like the world spider catalogue which attract higher funding rather than our aussie T's. His reveiw could still be years away from print. Selenocosmia is no longer relevent in Australia , and have been reclassified as Phlogius genus. The Selenocosmia genus now refers to a southern asian group separated from ours by Steve Nunn and I think Rick West.
Still massive amounts of work to be done with our T's but no one is funding it, so unfortunatly it is left to the hobbiests. Mind you some of the hobbiests are very good at what they do, Like Steve Nunn.


----------



## Boidae (Jan 1, 2012)

That is one very impressive Tarantula! 
How big is he, and dare I ask what do you feed him?


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

It's the same with reptiles. Many hobbiests recognise that the diversity of the animals exceeds the accepted number of listed species...then start adopting names that haven't been published in peer reviewed journals. It's frustrating but if everyone doesn't stick to the taxonomic rules, names get applied to various animals that aren't even the same. There's been some damn shonky amateur "taxonomy" done on Australian reptiles because biologists have lagged behind ...but that's generally because they're doing a thorough job...describing specimens properly, conducting field studies to ensure that there isn't just continuous variation, molecular studies etc AND looking for existing names that take precedence. With variants of existing species that are probably different it is probably best to call them "Species x, Northern Cairns small form" or some other descriptive term. Applying names that haven't been accepted under the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is just confusing.



boidae said:


> That is one very impressive Tarantula!
> How big is he, and dare I ask what do you feed him?



Hi Boidae. Not sure of the size probably 130mm -140mm diagonally measured. She only gets a few crickets every couple of weeks in the warm months and an occasional pinky mouse. Has been soooo easy to keep...and she's out a lot of the time on display.


----------



## SteveNT (Jan 1, 2012)

Nice T cobber. We cant keep them here.


----------



## Cockney_Red (Jan 1, 2012)

just getting into T's....fascinating


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 1, 2012)

Another shot...she went out for a walk tonight.....


Just another phone pic I'm afraid...you get the idea though.


----------



## mysnakesau (Jan 2, 2012)

I am sure she is very nice but I have to say it -- eeeewwwww. Spiders aren't my cuppa tea. I near crashed my car couple days ago when a huntsman decided to run up the windscreen right in front of the steering wheel. I screamed like a woose, almost hitting a parked car, and near missed going into the driveway of the local produce store. I made the guy at the produce get it off the car...haha.


----------



## james.5 (Jan 2, 2012)

Inside their burrow do they have webs or anything? Looks awesome too.


----------



## Bel03 (Jan 2, 2012)

mysnakesau said:


> I am sure she is very nice but I have to say it -- eeeewwwww. Spiders aren't my cuppa tea. I near crashed my car couple days ago when a huntsman decided to run up the windscreen right in front of the steering wheel. I screamed like a woose, almost hitting a parked car, and near missed going into the driveway of the local produce store. I made the guy at the produce get it off the car...haha.




Im with u......i get goosebumps just looking at pics! My mum has a bird eating spider (i have no idea what the proper scientific name for it is) but it is GROSS!! I no longer go inside my mum's house, we stay on the patio!


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 2, 2012)

james.5 said:


> Inside their burrow do they have webs or anything? Looks awesome too.



Hi yes they web their burrows...and sometimes a mat of web around the enclosure as well.


----------



## matt74 (Jan 2, 2012)

Saw a bird eating spider about the size of my hand getting scull dragged up the inside wall of a nursery igloo (shade cloth covered building for plants just so no one gets confused!) by a wasp a couple of weeks ago, it was one big, nasty looking wasp. I took my phone out to get a photo but the wasp dropped the spider and started flying around me, I think it felt threatened by my presence. I didn't hang around to see if I'd get another photo opportunity. 

It was in the whitsundays in Queensland, I've seen tons of bird eaters up there but never seen a wasp like this so if anybody knows what sort of wasp it was I'd like to know. Unfortunately the best description I can give is that it looked like a wasp, was yellow and half the size of the spider (the size of my hand including legs not just the body if you know what I mean) it was skull dragging which looked like it was still twitching.

Don't worry, I think I might have found it , check it out by googling "tarantula hawk wasp Australia" and look at the pictures. They look to have orange wings but I definately remember yellow on the one I saw. Apparently their sting is excruciatingly painful, but doesn't last long on humans...


----------



## Hoplophile (Jan 2, 2012)

That's them. They're solitary (as opposed to social) wasps. They sting the spider and paralyse it; then lay their eggs on it in the wasp's burrow. The spider stays alive long enough for the wasp larvae to hatch then they eat the spider from the inside out ...natures own fridge!


----------



## mysnakesau (Jan 3, 2012)

I hate spiders and wasps but that is very cruel. I feel sorry for the poor spider.


----------



## spiderdan (Jan 29, 2012)

Hoplophile said:


> Yes I meant _Selenthotholus_ not _Selenotypus_. Yet to see the peer reviewed paper revising the taxonomy though. I know Robert Raven has been revising the Theraphosids but until it's been published (and it may have been - I haven't kept up) they're all just hobby names as far as I'm concerned. It's like the _S.plumipes_ and _S.crassipes_ groups. All sorts of names floating around but I don't see the science behind the nomenclature.



Selenotypus plumipes is a discribed species and will not change with Ravens review.
This is one of the first discribed sp in Oz.


----------

