Andrew Smith’s Tarantula Journal
Entry: June 1st 2012
Cambodia: Collecting in the field
In my May entry we took the opportunity to nibble on tarantula
spiders in both the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh and at the coach
stop at Skuon/Skuen – but what were we nibbling on, that was the
key question?
In Skuon, it quickly became obvious that they had eaten most of the
local spiders and were now forced to collect new stock miles away in
the province of Kampong Thom. But what I wanted to know – what
was the spider that was originally eaten and is still known locally as
the buffalo spider? It was then that we had a stroke of luck – a local
woman recalled that she passed by a fresh burrow each day, on the
way to work. A few dollars changed hands and the team were quickly
endoscoping a nice silk lined burrow on a piece of waste ground
behind the market.
The endoscope screen revealed – our lady was at home. My only
cause for concern was the nagging fear that the spider was a
defanged plant – popped into a nearby hole for curious tourists to
discover. Thankfully - the screen informed us that it was not!
I then made the decision to record how the local collectors actually
go about digging up their spiders – so a few more dollars exchanged
hands and my lady briefly returned home – before reappearing with
an awesome digging tool.
In the download lecture – Collecting and Eating Tarantula Spiders
in Cambodia, we have recorded for posterity the local method of
extraction – but what was fascinating is the spider that we found
at the bottom of the burrow! It was a lovely velvet black Haplopelma
and very different from the material, we were to later find up at
Kampong Thom – which we believe to be – or very closely related to –
Haplopelma longipes. This new black spider, in my opinion, is a new
species – which I intend to describe in a paper in the autumn. It is
not Haplopelma minax. But you can see why they call it the buffalo
spider!
The
spiders that seem to be more common out on the north east
Cambodian
flood plains
are these
beasts
–
which are
probably
Haplopelma
longipes.
A bit of a beast – as you can tell, by the way that it has just chewed
up my ruler. But you can discover more about these spiders in the
lecture – let’s go in search of something special – a nice new blue
spider! So we headed south to the Cardamom Mountains, a day long
drive - that by its end, had cast us onto the rolling monsoon forest
carpeted uplands of the Chuor Phnom Damrei.
Where we soon ensconced ourselves into an old hill station!
The region is fascinating - in that once you are into the hinterland of
these highlands, much of the deciduous moonsoon forest gives way
to alpine grass meadows and
coniverous fir forests.
Where we soon located the silk lined burrows of a new Haplopelma
species – which when tickled turned out to be a most lovely spider.
Now let me show you how we tickle and extract!
As you can see the lady is at home and gently reacting to the
stimulus of a twig – which she is investigating. We received a very
different reaction when we inserted – rubber tipped forceps.
Now we have discovered that when a spider siezes the rubber tipped
end of the forceps they often hang on and can be gently teased out
of their burrow. And what a spider was revealed – an absolute
cracker!
It looks a little bit like Haplopelma lividum – a spider that I descibed
in 1996 - the type of which, hails from Burma/Myanmar. I am of
the belief that we have two new Haplopelma species – we shall see.
At the moment I am working with the German arachnologist Volker
Von Wirth, an old friend who has kindly sent me his dissection
drawings and notes pertaining to the museum type material – which,
has saved me an awful lot of travelling. I will keep you informed!
Volker Von Wirth
Why not go to our lectures page and download – Collecting & Eating
Tarantula Spiders in Cambodia