# Abbreviations, terms and info for new keepers



## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

*Avic*. - Short for Avicularia which is a genus of tarantula also known as the "Pink Toe". Its a small good natured arboreal spider which has pink feet.

*Pokey *- Short for Poecilotheria which is a genus of tarantula commonly referred to as "Ornamentals" which are an extremely fast and posses a toxic venom.

*Brachy *- Short for Brachypelma which is a good starter species or show peace for tarantula keepers especially B.Smithii (Mexican red knee) and B.Albopilosum(Curly Hair). They are normally docile but do tend to flick hairs frequently and are sometimes known as Flickypelma because of this. Many of these species are protected by CITES.

*Grammy - *Short for Grammostola which is also another good starter species however they do tend to be more temperamental than the Brachypelma's.

*Slings - *Short for spiderlings which are baby tarantulas or Scorplings which are baby scorpions.

*Arboreal - *Climbing spiders, height is more important than floorspace.

*Burrowing - *Deep substrate needed in order it to create a burrow for hiding in.

*Ground Dwelling - *Mainly stays on the floor however can burrow too, will use a hide.

*Old world vs New World.

*This stems from the Darwinian method of discovering the world. Old world were countrys that were originally known such as Affrica, Asia and Europe while new world tends to be America and so forth.

Furthermore Old world tarantulas do not posses Uricating hairs so are unable to "flick" them at threats. However they do posses more a powerful venom than new world tarantulas.

New world tarantulas are able to flick uricating hairs but also posses venom and in the case of some species are able to shoot poo with surprising accuracy at threats, most notably are the ones from the Avicularia genus.

*Uricating Hairs.

*In short they are small hair like barbs that new world tarantulas "flick" off their rump. There are different types of uricating hair which vary in intensity. Some need direct contact to be affective, others are flicked from the rump of the tarantula. In humans they can produce itching and sometimes an alergic reaction. The Hairs of a Grammostola Rosea (Chilie Rose) will be less severe than Theraphosa Blondi (Goliath Bird Eating Spider) or the Theraphosa Apophysis (Pink Foot Goliath) which possess severe itching. In smaller organisms such as crickets or mice the hair can lead to death. 

*Latin names.*

Latin names are separated into genus and species. The first name i.e. Brachypelma is the Genus and several tarantulas can belong to this genus. The last name is the Species and is used to identify that individual tarantula.

*So why latin names why dont you use simple English?*

Simply put unlike snakes or lizards their is litterally hundreds of species of Tarantula available on the market. To some people a pink toe is a pink toe, while others would see it as an Avicularia Sp. Guyana (Also known as Avicularia Avicularia) and an Avicularia Versicolor which are completely different tarantulas. Furthermore some shops do try to make the tarantula they are selling sound better than it is so here are a few storys.



Shops attempting to sell Avicularia Avicularia as "Giant pink toe". Giant pink toes come under the latin name Avicularia braunshausen and are hard to find in the market. Shop sells a juvinile for £40 for what is essentially a £15 adult tarantula because it confuses some people or makes it sound "better" than what your actually getting.
Another shop attempts to sell a "Highly Rare Red Tarantula" for £200 which they dont know the name of. However the tarantula is a Grammostola Rosea....which goes for the maximum of £20.
Also Some tarantulas have several common names, Grammostola Rosea is marketed under Rose hair tarantula, Rosey Tarantula, Chilean Rose, Chilean Tarantula, Chilean Rose haired tarantula.... list goes on.
People and shops are able to make up common names, Haplopelma Lividum or the Cobalt Blue could be marketed as "Gunbolt Blue" or "Blue legged tarantula" and sold at a premium rate making them sell at a higher price for whats normally a cheap and affordable tarantula.
When breeding you want to make sure that the two tarantulas that you have are the same species so its always important to find out the Latin name not the common name!
*Wild caught over Captive bred.*

Simply put avoid Wild Caught wherever possible. Species such as Grammostola Rosea (Chilie Rose) as adults are 99% Wild Caught. While good for a first tarantula a large number of imported tarantulas will not survive for long in captivity. When imported you do not know the age of tarantulas or if they have parasites. If they have nematodes (Internal Parasites) it will lead to the certain death of the infected tarantula by taking away its capacity to feed and eventually eat it from the inside out. Whats worse is this can infect the rest of your collection including your reptiles! Also unlike reptiles and other animals nematodes cannot be cured in tarantulas, its certain death. Also some just do not do well in captivity and will not eat. In short try to buy captive bred tarantulas.

*Moulting.

*This is a stressful time during a tarantulas life. Tarantulas moulting will create a moulting mat made of web and flip over onto their backs. They then spend the next few hours literally pulling themselves out of their old skin. Many new keepers think the tarantula is dead at this point but tarantulas *do not die on their backs. *If a tarantula is dead it will curl up with its legs under it. Do not disturb or move the enclosure during this time as it can kill the tarantula. Furthermore do not feed until a week since the moult has passed as it needs a week to harden its body and fangs. After a moult a tarantula can become bigger as well as repair lost limbs.

*Differences between male and females.

*Without getting too complicated females tend to be larger and live a lot longer than males. If a spider takes 4 years to mature from birth a female will live to 20 years while the male will only last a year after it matures. Once males hit maturity they will not moult again and slow down and eventually die, females will moult throughout their lifespan.

*The Handling debate.

*Handling your tarantula is a big debate among tarantula keepers. Some say its fine under proper conditions. Other state it should not be done. However if you handle a tarantula you do so at your own risk. A fall of a foot can kill a spider, and 3 feet will make the tarantula explode. So if you handle it make sure its over a soft surface and it never goes too far above this. Also be aware if you are bitten you will likely be envenomated and flinch and as a result throw the spider leading to its untimely demise. Many keepers get pleasure from just watching their tarantulas just like fish.

*Venom.

*Lets face it tarantulas are venomous. How each person reacts to venom is completely different. However people have owned their tarantulas for *thirty years and have not been bitten. *If you are bitten its best to seek medical advice, however most bites do not warrent it. Nobody has died from a tarantula bite ever. However it can bring about an anaphalactic shock if you are allergic to the bite. There is 1/1000 chance of being alergic, however the chance of owning a tarantula and being bitten is even less so theirs not much to worry about. But if this happens dial 999 immediately. Most beginner tarantulas create bites like bea stings however more advanced species can be extremely painful. Lastly Tarantulas cannot be "de-venomed". This is impossible. To do this you would have to cut out the venom sacks or remove the fangs. The spider would not survive the sacks being removed and would be unable to feed without the fangs.

*My son/daughter/mum/dad/sister/brother/queens mother has bought a tarantula and im TERRIFIED!

*Well my advice would be to ditch the person complaining but for the sake of argument i will say this. Most people have a fear of tarantulas because they are taught like all spiders that they are able to kill you and bite you from an early age. As such this fear is ingrained and is completely irrational especially when people scream at the sight of a tarantula. Tarantulas prefer to run away when dealing with threats than attacking. Also their owning a tarantula will help you overcome your fear via seeing it daily. When i got my first tarantula i was terrified of them (picture school girl squealing and so forth). However owning and looking at them helped desensitize me to not only tarantulas but spiders and insects in general. After a week i would happily sit down with a cup of tea watching my Chilie rose move the contents of its tank to the way it wanted too. Two weeks later my mum came in for a cuppa and both of us sat down and watched it. Soon people were coming over just to sit down and chat with a cuppa while watching the tarantula including my house mate who was given a meat tenderizer by my mum "in case it escaped" despite being in a faunarium with a lockable lid.

To drive this thread to a close tarantulas are easy to care for long lived animals that will spark interest for all your life. They are also cheap to house and cheap to buy and i hope many of you take the time to at least see one or spend time watching them as they have given me many hours of enjoyment more than any reptile has done.


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## Josh-sama (Sep 26, 2008)

Woah! Nice guide! I'll give it a full read now!


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## gecko_steve (May 14, 2008)

nice guide lucifus, thinking of gettin a mexican red knee sometime soo so will come in useful


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## Dungbug (Oct 16, 2007)

Great post Lucifus!:2thumb:


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

A very good read that deserves a sticky. However, the pedantic fella that I am, means I have to raise a few points. You might want to spell check this too.

1. The genus is always started with a capital letter and the species is all in lower case. eg. Avicularia versicolor. You might also wish to point out that its often the genus is abbreviated to just the letter, eg. A. versicolor.

2. We use scientific names which consist of Latin, Greek and various other sources eg. places (Avicularia amazonica) and names of people who have found/decribed them eg. Brachypelma Smithi (the i relates to found/described by).




> *Arboreal - *Climbing spiders, height is more important than floorspace.


Actually it means tree dwelling, as most spiders will climb.



> *Old world vs New World.
> *This stems from the Darwinian method of discovering the world. Old world were countrys that were originally known such as Affrica, Asia and Europe while new world tends to be America and so forth.


Darwin didn't discover the world, he wrote a book called Origin of the Species blah blah blah. It actually stems from the New World (the Americas) which were found by Christopher Columbus, although there were others before him, including the indigenous population!!! The term Old World wasn't used until early 20th Century.



> *So why latin names why dont you use simple English?*


Also, "scientific" names cross over the language barrier and help to reduce the amount of common names available eg. Poecilotheria = Indian Ornamentals/Tiger Spiders/Parachute Spiders etc.



> *Wild caught over Captive bred.*


You might want to add the conservation side of this too.



> *Differences between male and females.
> 
> *Without getting too complicated females tend to be larger and live a lot longer than males. If a spider takes 4 years to mature from birth a female will live to 20 years while the male will only last a year after it matures.


That's a rather sweeping, better to put that females last much longer than males. I know several people that own males (G. rosea & A. avicularia) that are approaching or over 2 yrs after their ultimate moult.



> *The Handling debate.*
> A fall of a foot can kill a spider, and 3 feet will make the tarantula explode.


explode! perhaps better to use the analogy of an egg. A fall of a foot or more is likely to rupture the abdomen resulting in a long agonising death.



> *Venom.
> *Nobody has died from a tarantula bite ever.


That's not strictly true, although often repeated on the net. Schultz intends to include info on this in his updated book. I believe he found 7 instances although it became harder to determine exactly what caused the deaths, eg subsequent infection.

Its probably worth spelling out that most of the New World species carry a much less potent bite than the Old World and that the results of the more potent species can result in anything from flu like reactions to muscle spasms and aches. You might also wish to include the 3 bites possible, dry bite, envenomous bite and mechanical bite.

My own thoughts on this matter of venom is to air on the side of caution. Many of the species from the Old World are only recently commonly available and the study of tarantula, never mind the venom, is in its infancy. The recording of deaths in Africa and Asia was often down to what people thought they died of as much of these continents are poor. The cost of having a doctor describe how someone died was surplus to requirements. Now, I'm not saying tarantula can kill, but without proper records and without even accurate descriptions today, its a rather blind area.

Hope this helps and plz don't take it as negative - you've created a nice thread here which will aid many newbies and hobbyists.


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## Incubuss (Dec 19, 2006)

Great thread that should be a sticky, but I personally would remove the last bit as it is an opinion not a fact.


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

None taken Poxicator its something that i wanted debated and bits pointed out.....and crap Darwin instead of Columbus... my heads gone.:lol2:

Truth be told it took 30 mins to pump out this mini essay which is quite short. Thanks for the tips.

[Edit]

Damn tried to make changes and the time limit expired.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

good post hun altho you made it easy for non maybe starting out t keepers and someone made it harder to understand lol


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

Noooooooooooo!
I'd suggest copying all of it, make your changes and once everyone's added their bit ask a mod to amend it for you. Definitely a worthwhile thread.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

Poxicator said:


> Noooooooooooo!
> I'd suggest copying all of it, make your changes and once everyone's added their bit ask a mod to amend it for you. Definitely a worthwhile thread.


oops hope thats not towards me i no nothing of ts but would like a couple just dont have a clue on them am a snake guy lol and need easy to follow advice


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

Poxicator said:


> Noooooooooooo!
> I'd suggest copying all of it, make your changes and once everyone's added their bit ask a mod to amend it for you. Definitely a worthwhile thread.


Good point will wait for comments to come in then get it modded.


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

adamntitch said:


> oops hope thats not towards me i no nothing of ts but would like a couple just dont have a clue on them am a snake guy lol and need easy to follow advice


LOL no, I was referring to the fact Lucifus can't edit his thread. 
If you're a noob, this is exactly the post you need to read.


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

Any more suggestions before i start making final changes?


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## Josh-sama (Sep 26, 2008)

List of the Genus' 
Maybe add a section on scorpions, pedes and mantis?


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I'm not really comfortable with the WC section, which is entirely your opinion, and a raging debate, but many very large and well reputed shops and suppliers stock a large amount of WC - several even owning facilities in various countries and hand picking new species to bring into the country. I feel it a little unfair to tell all new keepers to avoid WC. I've been working in the industry for 8 years now and I have never in my life received a spider with mites, had very few T's die and stock a good 80% WC..... what diseases of condition the spider will be in may depend upon the stockist, and I have no doubt that some may be in poor condition, but if you want to make an informative sticky it is important it be factual and not opinionated.

Perhaps a section on potential risks/diseases could list things like checking spiders carefully for mites before purchasing etc


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

With the Arboreal thing.. Arboreal - twee dwelling, terrestrial - ground dwelling and fossorial - burrowing 

T's are measured from leg 1, diagonally across the body, to leg 8; toe to toe.


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## iiisecondcreep (Oct 29, 2007)

Great post!

Maybe where you have the pokie etc abbreviations you could have GBB, OBT, whatever... as well?

Someone mentioned spell checking, not sure if spell checker will pick this up but it urTicating hairs. My firefox seems to think uricating and urticating are both spelling mistakes


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## gwinni (Oct 8, 2007)

That's a great guide well done lucifus


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## y2kcurran (Aug 27, 2008)

great post well done lucifus!! with a few amendments n mayb sum removal of opinions it shud get stickied  very informative n helpful :2thumb:


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

Waiting for a mod to edit the post for me and see about getting it stickied as have made the changes in word.


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## Haggles (Aug 11, 2008)

really helpful im still new to tarantulas and its deffinetly something ill be looking into a lot more now, really filled in a lot of things i didnt know :no1:


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## jadeteacup (Jul 18, 2008)

love it love it love it... :mf_dribble:

i wud have sed the OBT and GBB ect thingys too.. 

great guide :no1:


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

OBT - Orange baboon tarantula OR commonly known as Orange Bitey Thing :lol:

GBB - Green Bottle Blue aka Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens

RCF - Red Colour Form

NCF - Normal Colour Form

TCF - Typical Colour Form

DCF - Dark Colour Form

LCF - Light Colour Form


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## GazEmm (Jul 11, 2006)

Great thread guys.

Lots of information that i didn't have a clue about when i first started being interested in T's...and its all in one place :2thumb:


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## Lucifus (Aug 30, 2007)

Becky said:


> OBT - Orange baboon tarantula OR commonly known as Orange Bitey Thing :lol:
> 
> GBB - Green Bottle Blue aka Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
> 
> ...



Was already added. :Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## Josh-sama (Sep 26, 2008)

Add "Other Inverts"

Scorps etc


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## Becky (Mar 26, 2007)

Lucifus said:


> Was already added. :Na_Na_Na_Na:


 
Bog off... :Na_Na_Na_Na:


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