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European News Another Hamm Terraristika show comes and goes, and with it the advent of autumn and winter. Time to keep the spiders warm and wait to emerge in the spring to see friends and colleagues from around the globe. I could not help but notice the increase of Brits at the show. It is good to see that people are willing to give European shows a visit and at the same time have a short holiday! I would say that several Brits came to our table only to ask the price for large numbers of spiders. If they didn’t like the price they just walked on without even asking the condition or history of the tarantulas. This tells me that they were dealers, rather than private collectors. I feel strongly bound to tell anyone reading this who fits into that category that cheaper spiders are not necessarily better spiders. Beware cheap wild caught specimens that die within a few days of purchase. Coming abroad to purchase that way is a false economy. We all still have the moral obligation to purchase captive-bred stock where possible. The more wild caught you buy, the more wild caught will be taken. Although we are tarantula lovers, many of us admire the true spiders also. I was delighted recently to discover Argiope bruennichi at my place of work. I have been searching for this species in various places in Germany for the last three years with no luck. One day at work, a member of staff directed me to the ‘pretty’ spider on the wall outside one of our buildings. I was amazed to see not only an adult female A..bruennichi guarding a large brown egg-sac but the much smaller male was in the vicinity as well. This was a real bonus and I managed to get some nice photographs. At home, Su and I have been trying to breed several theraphosids. Recently, Theraphosa blondi, Metriopelma coloratum, Haplopelma lividum and Chilobrachys fimbriatus have been paired. We have had a successful hatching of Poecilotheria rufilata. I have enjoyed sharing my shower with a Pholcus phalangioides over the last few weeks. She is incubating an egg-sac and pops down from her corner for a drink of my shower water in the form of condensation every time I shower. Talk about manipulating her environment! I must leave you with a lovely quote from a six year old girl who asked me a question at a recent slide show talk I was giving for juniors in the local army Garrison. As normal I was introduced as 'spiderman' and she obviously thought I really was spiderman. She came up after the talk, held my hand and said “Can you do any incredible stunts?” Carl |