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Comments & ID Thoughts
Aphonopelma mooreae Smith 1995, female.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Dec 7, 2018
- Photographed: Feb 16, 2006
- Spider: Aphonopelma mooreae (North American Cobalt Tarantula)
- Sex:
- Location: Yecora, Sonora State, Mexico
- Spotted Outdoors: Ground layer (leaf litter, dirt, grass, etc),Forest
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Dorsal
I want to send my picture of spider for identification. HOW do I do that ?
Hi, Rick is a tarantula expert, it is safe to disclose info about a tarantula you found to him.
You can send a clear focused close-up photo to rickcwest@shaw.ca . That said, ID’s from photos are difficult.
Thank you Rick! She’s gorgeous! We had a user asking people who submitted tarantula photos for their zip codes and the photo GPS coordinates. Totally shady. Since that I’ve warned people who submit tarantula pics to be aware of poachers and to not give out locations. I just realized that there is time, date, and location metadata in original pics, so people shouldn’t share original digital photos off their devices to questionable people who request them. Any thoughts on that?
100% agree. Tarantulas, especially large or colorful species, are highly targeted for the commercial pet trade and great care has to be taken to hide their locality data … to the extent of redaction in publications and cryptic coding of museum specimens … to keep from those claiming to be reseachers wanting to see theor specimen collection to search for localkty data.
Thanks! I would like to find a way to stop people from putting anything more specific than state in the location if they think they found a tarantula. The shady person, “Underworld” was targeting other Southwestern arthropods on our site too. He claimed we need the data to identify the animal. I think iNaturalist automatically blocks the info, I’ll check. This site needs a lot of changes, I would like to get this done with the other changes. For now I’m trying to warn people quickly after they post. If you know of a list of arthropods of which we… Read more »
Its a tough call. You will always have toilet scum seek species locality iinformation for their own selfish needs. The sad reality is that restrictions and redaction of species information ruins it for legitimate researchers that scan sites, such as this and iNaturalist for range data. If concerned, limited postings of potential target species to State, Province or County and leave it up to the poster to provide further detail if they feel comfortable with being contacted and asked. You can always post a warning that pops up to posters that by posting certain species on your site they may… Read more »
Rick West, I think I hav spotted a NA Cobalt Tarantula! I only hav one pic now but will post more soon. I’m in Sierra Vista, AZ
Actually, Aphonopelma mooreae is not known to range from n. Mexico into Arizona or the USA. In your area, I think you found a different, but similar-looking, Aphonopelma species in and around the Huachucas. Post you photos … although its difficult to make accurate IDs from photos.