# Poecilotheria hanumavilasumica



## Jamesrm (Jul 30, 2008)

i was browsing through spider sites when i read of a spider named a Rameshwaram Parachute Spider googled it and came up with this anybody ever heard of these or own one but i think this would only be in professional collections if anybody has one

Poecilotheria hanumavilasumica (Rameshwaram Ornamental, Rameshwaram Parachute Spider)


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

these are listed by CITES as seriously endangered & i believe it is illegal to trade them because of this. there is, in any case, a self-imposed ban by the trade on importing these. whether any will become available as cb i'm not sure.


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## Jamesrm (Jul 30, 2008)

if you search just for Poecilotheria on the link i posted most of them are seriously endangered in the wild


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

Thorsten Kroes has new batch of slings atm if anyone really wants a pricey spider that looks just like _P. fasciata.. _


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## Baldpoodle (Apr 18, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> these are listed by CITES as seriously endangered & i believe it is illegal to trade them because of this. there is, in any case, a self-imposed ban by the trade on importing these. whether any will become available as cb i'm not sure.


These are not listed by CITES and it is just as legal to trade with these as any other species of Poecilotheria. 
There is also no hobby trade self -imposed ban on importing these either.
There is a requst from the bts not to trade in them and you can not sell them on that web site but that is about all.
They have also been captive bred in mainland Europe for a few years now.
As for seriously endangered, well that depends on who you talk to and what you read.
IMO they are anyway P.fasciata.


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

this forum won't allow ads trading in them- it deletes them, & has done several times already.


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## Paul c 1 (Sep 30, 2009)

I've got a very good book on Poecilotheria spp. 'ornamental vogelspinnen' it's in german, but it's literally a complete refernce for pokies, there are various images of P. hanumavilasumica in the wild and some cracking photos of there natural habitat.

And yep P. hanumavilasumica looks pretty much identical to P. fasciata, they are only literally found on around a square acre of land.


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

Paul c 1 said:


> I've got a very good book on Poecilotheria spp. 'ornamental vogelspinnen' it's in german, but it's literally a complete refernce for pokies, there are various images of P. hanumavilasumica in the wild and some cracking photos of there natural habitat.
> 
> And yep P. hanumavilasumica looks pretty much identical to P. fasciata, they are only literally found on around a square acre of land.


That depends on who you ask Paul , I know it's been claimed that the hobby stuff was not collected at the temple site that the BTS tryed to get earmarked for them but elsewere and that they have a wider range then has been published on the red book site, and it's counter claimed that they must have been but with no proof to back up that claim either.

Now I can't say this for 100% but one or two people also believe they were exported many years ago and sold as _P. fasciata_ but from South India, if that is true then the claim they are found over a wider range may well be true.


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> this forum won't allow ads trading in them- it deletes them, & has done several times already.


Yes a few sites are following the BTS's add ban, but just about no mainland EU sites and forums are abideing by it as far as iv seen, and seeing as most pokies have smuggled ancestry anyway it seems a bit pointless.


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## Baldpoodle (Apr 18, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> this forum won't allow ads trading in them- it deletes them, & has done several times already.


All that means is that this site is complying with the wishes of the bts nothing more. There are a few sites that wont allow the sale because of this.



> And yep P. hanumavilasumica looks pretty much identical to P. fasciata, they are only literally found on around a square acre of land.


I have this book too the one by Krehenwinkel, Maerkin and Kroes yes? and in this it does not say they are literally found on around a square acre of land at all. In this book they say they have found them in many other tamrinden tree plantaions in the southwest of india. The square acre thing I expect comes from the place they were first found by Andrew Smith and friends which they were hoping to make into a spider santuary.


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## Paul c 1 (Sep 30, 2009)

Baldpoodle said:


> All that means is that this site is complying with the wishes of the bts nothing more. There are a few sites that wont allow the sale because of this.
> 
> 
> 
> I have this book too the one by Krehenwinkel, Maerkin and Kroes yes? and in this *it does not say they are literally found on around a square acre of land at all.* In this book they say they have found them in many other tamrinden tree plantaions in the southwest of india. The square acre thing I expect comes from the place they were first found by Andrew Smith and friends which they were hoping to make into a spider santuary.


yep that's the book BP - your right it doesn't state this in the book, well to be honest I wouldn't bloody know anyway as it's in german!

The square acre thing is what i've read or was told else where.

-P


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## Paul c 1 (Sep 30, 2009)

Now I can't say this for 100% but one or two people also believe they were exported many years ago and sold as _P. fasciata_ but from South India, if that is true then the claim they are found over a wider range may well be true.[/QUOTE]


Very interesting to learn they may not just be from Sri Lanka but also India... hmmm the plot thickens!


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## Jamesrm (Jul 30, 2008)

does anybody know if there is a translated version of the Poecilotheria book Ornamentvogelspinnen - Die Gattung Poecilotheria
anybody who owns it how mamy pages are there in total?


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## Paul c 1 (Sep 30, 2009)

I don't think there is at the moment James, it's easy to translate with something like google translator.

The book is worth having just for the pictures to be honest it's very well illustrated and the species accounts and habitat images are excellent


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## Jamesrm (Jul 30, 2008)

well i was thinking of mebys translating it and producing a pdf for personal refference


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

We're all still waiting for the RG/AS/PK Pokie book.

Translating that book would be a long ardous task if you used an online translator to do so, not to mention the copyright issues. Its a fantastic looking book and I so wish they'd translate it themselves as the English language has much wider coverage.


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

Poxicator said:


> We're all still waiting for the RG/AS/PK Pokie book.


I believe Andy said it was scraped iirc Pete, unless you have heard something to the contra.


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

eeek! thats not what I want to hear. Why so?
I realised Andy was finding it hard to get his notes together properly but I thought thats why Peter had become involved. 
There's a big market out there for pokies, Id have thought more so than those African earthy burrowers 
I'm going to enquire.


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## Baldpoodle (Apr 18, 2007)

read I think it was the last bts journal and it explains it. even though I do not think that is the REAL reason why it was scraped.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Baldpoodle said:


> read I think it was the last bts journal and it explains it. even though I do not think that is the REAL reason why it was scraped.


Whats the real reason then?


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## Baldpoodle (Apr 18, 2007)

As relayed to me from someone who spoke to Andrew about this subject.

Andrew had second thoughts because of the "so say" sales of the German book which he was under the opinion were not doing very well which is part of it but also I think it is very much sour grapes because the German book came out before his.

Because heres the thing that I find rather daft. An English language book has a whole lot wider market than a German language one so no problem there I think. His book would have a large section about the history of the genus, about the old collectors and describers of the day as you have to remember first and formost A. Smith is an historian so I would imagine a very large portion of the book would be about this and I think this was also a worry to him as the basic hobbyist is not as interested in this and would rather know about the spiders rather than the collectors. 
This is what was relayed to me a while back.

When you think so many years of research on just one group of spiders is now planned to go into a big bumper book of spiders it sounds rather silly as how much is going to be put into the other genera? And if the answer is just as much then how long will this wait be for this book? And when it does come out will the price range be out of reach for many often most hobby people. After all most people in this hobby tend not to have the money for such books so I think he will limit his market here more than he thinks. Spider keeping type people tend to like and keep things cheap don't forget.

Sure it will eventualy be a nice book though even if you do have to save up a few years to get it.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Cheers for that, interesting. I agree about the price - I've been known to buy some stupidly pricey books in my time, but it gets harder to justify £80 every time a new book arrives about genus / family x. 

I can see this being a bit like GNR's "Chinese Democracy" if he prolongs it too long. The anticipation will undoubtedly lead to high expectations which might never be satisfied.

TBH my own preference is the newer spate of books arriving on the biota of a specific region - makes more sense to me to describe the spiders of Belize, the plants of Borneo or whatever in greater local detail than to gloss over a huge biogeographic region trying to address a wide ranging genus or family.


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

I would agree most hobbyists will not fork over a fair chunk of cash for books even if they will blow money hot and cold for new animals :whistling2: but iv been just as guilty of that in the past.

But for the penny wise like me there is always google books you just have to use your imagination for the missing pages, which might explain why my home based plastic surgery business is not getting repeat custom?.


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

I think you raise some fair points there BP, not far away from my own thoughts. From pers com I know he was finding less time to devote to the book on Poecilotheria but I certainly hadnt thought it would be ditched.
Its quoted as a £70 book and may well be worth the price tag but I think it will encompass lots of stuff that the hobbyist isnt particularly willing to pay for. 
Schultz book is a good reference IMO however its rare that I refer to the history any more than looking up the correct name of the lady who suggested "bird eaters". 
The timeframe for keeping such a book suggests a long wait, especially considering new developments, taxonomy, species etc are being found. It would seem far more sensible to concentrate on one particular area with subsequent books to follow. The combined cost might be more but it would be like paying in instalments 

One wonders if this book will become AS legacy


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## Baldpoodle (Apr 18, 2007)

> From pers com I know he was finding less time to devote to the book on Poecilotheria


lol the bloke was working on it for years and then suddenly he has less time to work on it!


> Its quoted as a £70 book and may well be worth the price tag but I think it will encompass lots of stuff that the hobbyist isnt particularly willing to pay for.


I totally agree. May it would have been more prudent to publish two cheaper books, One on the spiders and one on the history and collectors?


> Schultz book is a good reference IMO however its rare that I refer to the history any more than looking up the correct name of the lady who suggested "bird eaters".


Not keen on the Schultz books as I find them to be very poorly researched. The website amendments page is proof of this alone.


> The timeframe for keeping such a book suggests a long wait, especially considering new developments, taxonomy, species etc are being found. It would seem far more sensible to concentrate on one particular area with subsequent books to follow. The combined cost might be more but it would be like paying in instalments


I agree also and am much more inclinded to buy books like GRB sugested on a given fauna for a given area.


> One wonders if this book will become AS legacy


Well let hope he don't pop his clogs before he gets to publish anything or all that work would have been for nothing.


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