Ok I'm intending on getting a communial setup in the fairly near future, however I was wondered how much T's suffer from inbreeding. I've done a little research but my knowledge of invertebrate physiology is limited at best, from what I gather they don't suffer anywhere near as much as mammals. Also I know there is plenty of it happening in colonies of roaches, crickets and other livefoods. So anyone out there more knowledgable than myself able to shed some light on this for me?
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There is no proof that there is any inbreeding in theraphosid spiders, lots of wild uneducated guesses based around 1 or 2 bad eggsacs, but that is about it.
There was a BTS article a couple of Journals back where a guy in the USA proved this with P. murinus, I have had similar results with P. regalis and some other Poecilotheria and a few people have had had similar with Hysterocrates sp. Basicly if a spider is comunual or social they live in self breeding colonies. Then again if you have ever stood in the middle of a spider colony it "screams" off inbreeding.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Ray
Originally posted by Rich.Harrington View PostOk I'm intending on getting a communial setup in the fairly near future, however I was wondered how much T's suffer from inbreeding. I've done a little research but my knowledge of invertebrate physiology is limited at best, from what I gather they don't suffer anywhere near as much as mammals. Also I know there is plenty of it happening in colonies of roaches, crickets and other livefoods. So anyone out there more knowledgable than myself able to shed some light on this for me?
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Originally posted by Rich.Harrington View PostOk so just to claify, If I had say an bunch of slings from the same eggsack of P.regalis and kept it for a number of years until breeding took place, then there would be no real problems?
In bred males are supposed to be infertile/ have a low sperm count.
This male was over 8" leg dia inbred males are supposed to be dwarfs,
As these species are also found in the wild in groups (and trying to find a tree with a suitable hole to house a poke is nigh on impossible as there are very few) this is possibly an adaptation for the lack of housing.
No one can answer how many specimens of theraphosid spiders of unrelated blood are required in captivity so no inbreeding depression occurs, and when you think there were only ever 19 P. rufialta ever taken into captivity then it makes you wonder ???
Ray
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Thanks for the info, I know that many of the "true spiders" that live in large social webs, have evolved to be clones to overcome inbreeding and was wondering if perhaps T's had gone somewhat along that route. Also I had heard stories of speicies having been started with a single pregnant catpive animal, it sounded abit far fetched but then I had to ask after hearing about the clone spiders.My Collection: - Support CB
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