05.06.2022

After more than 2 years of pandemic, there was a tarantula identification course again.

After a long dry spell without a tarantula identification course, due to the Corona pandemic, it could take place again this year - even if only in a private atmosphere. Some time ago we had met Torsten and Marion Wassermann, both PhD biologists, and since then we have had a lively exchange about all kinds of biological topics with them. Both are enthusiastic tarantula keepers and had approached us at the time with some questions regarding our knowledge of Davus sp. "Panama".

They were very interested in a tarantula identification course and so we offered to hold a private tarantula identification course with them as a small thank you for their help with some topics on tarantula biology and genetics. The attached pic's give a small insight into the course we held today. Various species of tarantulas such as Lasiodora klugi, Acanthoscurria geniculata, Haplopelma sp., Pamphobeteus antinous etc. were identified to genus level with a little help from the course leader Pic 1 - 4). The difficulty of identifying tarantulas with the help of the available identification keys lies not in the question of how to read a dichotomous identification key, in which two character states are always checked against each other, but in the knowledge of the characteristics checked. For example, what does a "scopula on the outside of the chelicera" look like? What structure do "stridulatory bristles" have, what is a "fused Spermathecae" (Pic 5) etc.?

However, both young taxonomists did very well in the identification and managed to identify all the exuviae that we provided more or less reliably down to the genus level. In addition, both participants were shown how to anaesthetise tarantulas with CO2 and the how the males field of Spinnerets looks like on the genital plate of the anaesthetised subadult Sericopelma male.

A nice and very interesting afternoon of identification with plenty of home-baked food (Pic 6), good humour and highly interesting discussions unfortunately came to an end much too quickly. But dog Marvyn, a beautiful Leonberger (Pic 7), was visibly happy to have his owners all to himself again.