The First US Breedings of Poecilotheria subfusca Pocock, 1895 with Notes on Pre- and Post-breeding Conditioning

Page 2 of 6 | by William Korinek, Bruce Effenheim & Michael Jacobi

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Michael Jacobi had a female produce an egg sac not long after LaRizzio's. Jacobi removed an egg sac from his female on 29 December 2003. The female had constructed a silken nest in the substrate at the base of a piece of cork bark, incorporating surrounding sphagnum moss, coconut chips, and other leaf litter until it was impossible to see into her chamber. The egg sac felt as if development had begun and was opened. There were approximately 80 embryos with about one-third at the postembryo stage. Although the date the sac was produced could not be determined, it is reasonable to assume it was somewhere around the first of the month. The egg sac was placed in an incubator made from a 6.75 inch [17 cm] diameter deli cup 4 in [10 cm] in height. Soaked paper towel was placed in the bottom of the cup. Cheese cloth was stretched over the top allowing for a depression for the egg sac, and it was secured around the cup with a rubber band and electrical tape. Ventilation was provided by holes punched around the circumference. The sac was set on the cheese cloth hammock and the cup lid secured on top.

Unfortunately, the timing couldn't have been worse for Jacobi. The spiders and egg sac were being housed at a retail exotic animal shop that he was in the process of closing. The climate of Nashville, Tennessee is mild and both cold and warm days are experienced during the winter. The heating system in his store was forced air that caused low humidity and fluctuating temperatures, and the small store had a western exposure that resulted in dramatically elevated temperatures during sunny afternoons. The worst factor was that there was no individual thermostatic control for the shop's heat. The store was part of a small strip of shops and the heat was either on or off depending on the landlordÕs interpretation of the dayÕs weather. A large humidifier was employed and thirty or forty gallons of water was run through it each day, but it was becoming impossible to keep temperatures low and humidity high. In hindsight, perhaps moving the egg sac home would have been the best action but, at the time, this was considered to be too risky.

When the postembryos began to molt to 1st instar the sac was opened and the contents spilled onto the hammock. There were over 70 1st instar nymphs. One day the incubator cup was examined and a large number of nymphs had died and were covered in fly larvae. A rushed attempt was made to remove all dead nymphs and larvae, and the sac was transferred to a new incubator cup. Sadly, the damage had already been done, and all nymphs were lost.

Once the store was closed and the spider collection was moved to new commercial space, Jacobi began to plan how to avoid similar problems in the future. He began to consider using techniques he had employed to breed montane vipers and geckos, which are summarized later in this article and detailed in his article in ARACHNOCULTURE 1(1) (Jacobi, 2005). Click here to download the PDF of this article or here to view the ARACHNOCULTURE E-ZINE version.

2004-2005: Theraphosid Breeding Project

Theraphosid Breeding Project [TBP] of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a joint venture between Bill Korinek and Bruce Effenheim. Twenty years BillÕs senior, Bruce has long been in the hobby but entered a hiatus for some time. When he began to build up a new collection he teamed with Bill and their combined collection became one of the largest in the United States. They have been very successful breeding a wide variety of tarantulas, including uncommon members of the genera Poecilotheria, Megaphobema, Pamphobeteus, and Xenesthis.

Bill's tarantula collection began in 1998 and from the beginning Poecilotheria subfusca was high on his list of species to work with. He began acquiring other Poecilotheria species while coveting the beautiful P. subfusca. When Korinek and Effenheim began dealing with US tarantula importer Frank Somma, they repeatedly asked if P. subfusca would become available. Before long Somma imported captive-bred spiderlings from Europe, and TBP obtained thirty specimens. They experienced fairly high spiderling mortality, but were able to raise eight females to adulthood.

TBP maintains their female P. subfusca in extra deep sweater boxes 14" x 16" x 16" high [35 x 40 x 40 cm] with a few ventilation holes drilled in the lid. A thick layer of damp sphagnum peat is used for substrate and water is provided in a deep deli cup set at the bottom of the cage. Two types of retreats are provided: one enclosed hide such as a hollow log, and one open hide created by a vertical slab of cork bark propped against the inside of the enclosure. The female that bred was kept at 68-70°F [20-21°C] prior to mating, but Korinek notes that he considers these temperatures too warm to use for extended periods of time, and has noticed a potential for dehydration and lack of appetite under these conditions.

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