New insights into maternal care and juvenile dispersal in Pterinopelma roseum (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

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  New insights into maternal care and juvenile dispersal in Pterinopelma roseum (Araneae: Theraphosidae) Abstract Tarantulas (Theraphosidae) exhibit a wide diversity of reproductive behaviors, yet many aspects of their natural history, particularly those related to maternal care and juvenile dispersal, remain poorly known. Pterinopelma roseum is a species distributed in southern Brazil and northeastern Argentina for which information on reproductive biology is limited. The aim of this study was to document maternal care, egg sac composition, and juvenile dispersal through the monitoring of a female collected together with its egg sac in Misiones Province, Argentina. The female was maintained under controlled laboratory conditions and observed daily until juvenile dispersal. During the incubation period, the female actively protected the egg sac, remaining in contact with it most of the time and displaying defensive behaviors when disturbed, while continuing to feed regularly. The e...

Five new Heteropoda species from Southeast Asia (Sparassidae: Heteropodinae)

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Five new Heteropoda species from Southeast Asia (Sparassidae: Heteropodinae)

Abstract 

Five new species of the genus Heteropoda from Southeast Asia are described: H. asa spec. nov. (Indonesia: Kalimantan; male), H. dede spec. nov. (Malaysia: Sabah; female), H. josephkohi spec. nov. (Brunei: Temburong; male, female), H. saracenoi spec. nov. (Indonesia: Flores; male, female), and H. singaporensis spec. nov. (Singapore; male, female). Most of them exhibit special palpal features like embolic apophyses or outgrowths, conductor apophyses, additional RTA branches or, in one case, a unique opisthosomal shape.

Jäger, P. (2024). Five new Heteropoda species from Southeast Asia (Sparassidae: Heteropodinae). Arachnology 19(8): 1100-1113.