In 2014 our team member Reto found a new yellow blue tarantula species of Pseudhapalopus in Colombia. Closely related to the already in the tarantula community established Pseudhapalopus sp. “Blue”, this species differs in additional yellow coloration and stripe markings on the legs.
The Discovery of the Yellow & Blue Tarantula
Traveling in Colombia is a joy. Searching for tarantulas in Colombia is even better. Reto managed to find a yellow blue tarantula species of Pseudhapalopus on his travels in 2014. We will show you the picture which shocked the internet and tarantula community just right below. Even our old logo is on the picture itself. The species was not collected. Pictures were taken and the location secured.
Yellow & Blue Tarantula from Colombia
A few years later, in autumn 2019 we were able to travel to Colombia in search of tarantula spiders. Due to the locality data we were able to visit the location where Reto found these amazing yellow and blue colored tarantulas from the genus Pseudhapalopus. Luckily it took the group of us only a few minutes until we found our first specimen. Shortly after we found other specimens which revealed the true size of this tarantula species. It surely is way bigger than the already beautiful Pseudhapalopus sp. Blue.
Additional information is provided in the embedded video. Please make sure to enable subtitles in the video, in case you don’t want to enjoy the audio – other languages, such as german or spanish are also available.
Pictures of specimens and behind the scenes information will be revealed to our members and supporters of the project birdspidersCH. If you have any specific question regarding information on this species, don’t hesitate to contact us through e-mail.
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The unique coloration on the opisthosoma makes it differ from other species of the genus Pseudhapalapus and quite frankly spoken, from all other known Theraphosinae in Colombia. Discoveries like this are important to increase our knowledge about arachnid diversity and have the ability to start conservation projects to ensure a stable habitat for tarantula species like this.
The specimens we encountered were very friendly and did not show any sign of defense behavior. Pseudhapalopus species Yellow Blue is a fossorial tarantula building its burrows along small trails and is therefore prone to be kept with a lot of substrate, when present in captivity. They were not present underneath rocks or huge logs – hence we advise to provide deep substrate for ideal breeding conditions.
Blue Pseudhapalopus species from Colombia
The other species of Pseudhapalopus with a blue coloration is the classic “species Blue”. This species is another tarantula we successfully documented in the wild, so please find below a picture of it. The coloration differs vastly despite the presence of a patch of blue setae on the opisthosoma. This species is also drastically smaller than the Yellow Blue Pseudhapalopus documented in the above pictures.
Additional Information
To learn more about Pseudhapalopus and their close relatives, think about reading the following literature and articles on that topic. A short summary is presented in the above video, but of course, more information will be found in the publications themselves.
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