Page 1 of 30 | Text and photos by Michael Jacobi with additional photos by Andrew M. Smith
INTRODUCTION
In 1980 and 1982, Carlos E. Valerio published several papers on Costa Rica's theraphosid spiders, describing a total of 22 new species—a large percentage of the currently accepted tarantula taxa of the country. It is believed that his travels took place in the late 1970's while he was a graduate student at Universidad de Costa Rica. He likely traveled the country by bus, working the roadsides outside villages served by this mode of transportation. As a Costa Rican, he would have been able to move about without difficulty, easily communicating with farmers and locals about their local arachnid fauna.
It was our team's goal to follow Valerio's thirty-year-old path, visiting his species' type localities as well as other historical sites of Costa Rican tarantulas. We would pursue this objective by working out of four base camps throughout the country: 1. La Quinta de Sarapiquí, situated in Caribbean lowland wet forest outside of La Virgen, along the Rio Sarapiquí near La Selva Biological Station; 2. Hotel Maleku, in the village of Upala in far northwestern Alajuela Province, near the borders of Guanacaste Province and Nicaragua; 3. Hotel Capazuri, outside Cañas in eastern Guanacaste; 4. Brunka Lodge in the tropical wet forests of Southern Region's Palmar Norte. We would travel by car to visit the same small villages and hamlets where Valerio had searched for tarantulas, and hope that in two weeks we would have success locating many of the same species.
In addition to retracing part of Valerio's trek in search of Costa Rican theraphosid spiders, we would be guided from a historical perspective by men like Hoffmann, Seemann and Tristram. Dr. Hoffmann was a German explorer and animal collector who provided material to museums, especially Berlin. One of our target species and the first Costa Rican tarantula described—Sphaerobothria hoffmanni Karsch, 1879—was named for him. Having one of the great Costa Rican tarantulas carry his patronym would also be the honor of Dr. Seemann. Aphonopelma seemanni (F.O.P.-Cambridge, 1897) is arguably the classic Costa Rican tarantula, and one that perhaps is the most widespread. Berthold Carl Seemann [1825-1871] was a German botanist based at Kew Gardens who joined the Royal Navy research ship H.M.S. Herald and collected specimens for the British Museum of Natural History [BMNH]. He traveled extensively in Latin America and died in Nicaragua. Reverend Henry Baker Tristram [1822-1906] was an English clergyman and traveler whose tuberculosis forced him to seek a warmer climate. The ordained priest spent some time in Bermuda and became one of the leading ornithologists of his day. He did some collecting of biological specimens for the BMNH while in Central America.
Our trip leader, Andrew Smith, was responsible for the daunting task of studying the literature and collection information for Costa Rican theraphosid spiders. He scoured papers, BMNH documents and corresponded with arachnologists worldwide to compile locality data that would prove useful to our expedition. He spent countless hours preparing notes and a master map with color-coded markers correlated to his collection data.
Our adventure would provide important photographs and habitat information for upcoming projects of both Andrew and myself. While my goal would be to capture video for an upcoming documentary on our field trip, plus notes for the travelogue you are reading and photographs of Costa Rican tarantulas in their natural habitat, Andrew would be approaching this trip as one piece in a much larger puzzle. Author of a number of books on tarantulas and countless papers, Andrew is looking ahead to a monumental work on the historic tarantula spiders of the world with a working title of Tarantulas, Gods and Men. Costa Rica would be just one location in the great scope of this future book, and one more country of the many he has visited to seek the great global theraphosid fauna.
This field trip can be loosely described as photographic reconnaissance. Our mission was to track the historic Costa Rican theraphosid spiders and capture original photographs of both the spiders and their habitat. With four photographers using film and digital cameras, plus my video footage, we chronicled these great tarantulas with images. We also collected data on distribution and burrow construction, and recorded temperature and humidity both inside and outside of burrows. Where possible, we viewed the inside of burrow tunnels using an endoscope. Global Positioning System [GPS] coordinates were recorded for each location. Identification of species would be primarily by visiting historical collection sites, especially the type localities of Carlos Valerio's spiders. We would not be collecting specimens, with the exception of temporary containment until better photographic conditions. All specimens would be released after carefully reconstructing their original homes.