The most beautiful spider in the world
Hmmm, that’s a bold post title isn’t it? Still, a little hyperbole never hurt anyone did it? Spiders on the other hand – they hurt people all the time. Well, actually not so much, but I understand that some people aren’t big fans of spiders. So as well as showing you the Most Beautiful Spider In The World (MBSITW), I thought I’d start off with a nice, friendly, non-spidery animal.
Facebook followers may have seen this little fellow before. This is a Blue-gray Tanager and when we were in Bahia we would see these guys every morning as we had breakfast. They are particularly fond of bananas.
A fine fellow don’t you think? Later on the same day we walked a couple of hours through forest to get to a beach with the wonderful name of Jeribucaçu (sounds like zheri-boo-cassoo). As we reached the coast I saw another bird – not quite as sweet and cuddly this time, but pretty impressive nonetheless:
The internet tells me that this is a Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, which seems a rather unfair name for a bird with a 165cm (65inch) wingspan.
Vultures are quite common in Brazil, but normally they are too far away to get a decent shot. On this occasion I just happened to be taking a photo of my travel mates when I saw this guy approaching – naturally a big vulture takes priority over mere people, so I told everyone to duck and managed to get this shot.
OK, so enough preamble, I did say something about a spider didn’t I? Well here is a spider:
See this spider? Well this isn’t the MBSITW – this is another spider. I guess it’s quite nice if you’re into spiders and it was certainly pretty massive.
Sorry, that was me trying to keep you in suspense. Here is the real MBSITW:
We first saw it walking along the ground. It wasn’t particularly happy to see us and sped off in search of a hiding place.
I’m not expert, but the furriness of this thing’s legs makes me think it is some kind of tarantula. It was pretty fast and ran off quite quickly. It seemed pretty pleased when it found a tree and immediately started to climb. Luckily that made it easier to get some closer shots.
Spider thinking “Great, I’ve found a tree – they’ll never be able to reach me up here…”
Lovely isn’t it? I guess that red abdomen is supposed to look scary (it probably does to birds and things) but I think it makes this an especially awesome arachnid.
As I took my photos the tarantula kept running round and round the tree. Great for me to take all the shots I wanted.
It looked particularly good when lit up by the sun.
So there you have it – the Most Beautiful Spider In The World. Did I overhype it? Personally I don’t think it did – it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. We only saw this one specimen, so if you’re not into spiders then don’t let it put you off Bahia – you’re almost certainly not going to find one of these in your bed. Almost certainly…
Holy cow!! Is it really that blue?!!?!? I don’t know if I would be terrified or amazed.
Your photography is so impressive, as always!
It really was! It was such pretty, sparkly colours that I didn’t stop to feel scared (and I’m not a fan of the black, furry house spiders we get back in the UK at all!). You can’t see it in the pictures too well, but its head was actually really green. So it had blue legs, a green head and that amazing red bottom – spectacularo! :)
It’s a male, trapdoor spider’s are a type of tarantula & only the male’s get out & about looking for girlfriend’s at mating time
The legs (if the photo is true to it’s color) is emerald which is a certain bluish green.
Cool spider, a bit too colorful (definitely a disco spider); yet fascinating nonetheless. The vulture pic is just gorgeous. Now how you managed to get away with telling a Brazilian woman to duck so you could take a picture of a bird instead is the most noteworthy phenomenon of them all. And please tell me that you didn’t describe the migration pattern of Mr. Lesser Yellow after doing so.
Slight confession to make actually – I didn’t really tell them to duck. In fact I just told them they were looking lovely and then shot the vulture instead. They’ll never know… ;)
Holy smokes! Indeed that is one beautiful spider, but how on earth were you able to hold your camera for the shots? I’d have been terrified that it could fly too & would attack me. Ha! Great photos :)
I should add that I grew up with an entomologist as a father so although spiders scare me I have a curiosity about them. I think what you found is called the Greenbottle blue Tarantula (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescen).
Ah ha ha! I think your entomologist father would have a thing or two to say about flying tarantulas Brae! ;) It was pretty sprightly though. I was willing him to stay still for a moment so I could get a proper shot in focus, but he wasn’t that cooperative. Also it was fairly small. Well, small compared to some I saw in Panama.
Can a tarantula really fly and attack someone, even if it’s only for a short distance? If so then that was quite courageous what you did.
Well maybe not so courageous after all:
“3. Tarantulas are quite docile and rarely bite people.
Many large predators would quickly make a meal of a tarantula, so they aren’t too anxious to tangle with something as large as a person. And it wouldn’t do a tarantula much good defensively to bite you, since its venom doesn’t pack much of a punch. A tarantula bite is no worse than a bee sting in terms of toxicity.”
http://insects.about.com/od/spiders/a/10-facts-about-tarantulas.htm
Btw no indication of them flying thus far, according to my research.
With apologies to Brae :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyRPCAHG2VY
and with scary music: http://youtu.be/Dvczb_Pixt4
Ughhhh… so gross! I guess I over exaggerated the flying, but see how they leap? What if it had of leaped off the tree on to your face? I would have died!
Wow!! beautiful shots. and that spider is amazing!! Such cool colours. Did you find out if it was a bitey-poisionous kind? That red bit would scare me a bit (alot!) :)
Wikipedia says: “All tarantulas are venomous, but only some species have venom that, while not known to have ever produced human fatalities, can produce extreme discomfort over a period of several days.”
So I was only risking a little extremem discomfort for a few days! ;)
P.s. I’ve been in touch with a tarantula forum. They say it isn’t a Greenbottle blue Tarantula (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescen), similar but not the same. Maybe I’ve discovered a new species! ;)
AWESOME!!!!!
Weird, I left a comment here before but it never showed up…
THIS SPIDER IS SOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!
Alex – I will speak to my team of web technicians… Heads will roll! ;) **Update** – I found it! It was in the spam comment box – reinstated :)
BTW, I asked on a tarantula forum yesterday – their chief spider-nerd said it definitely wasn’t a Greenbottle blue Tarantula (Brae’s guess), so until I hear different I’m saying it’s a new species. I will call it Manducare flumens (gotta love Google Translate Latin-English…)
The tarantula would be an Iridopelma seladonium.
Hi Goodoldneon – thanks for the information :) Most of the chat on the internet appears to be based around tarantula enthusiasts trying to find out how they can get their hands on one. I can understand why – they are beautiful animals.
That is a typhophelma seladonia (brazillian jewel) and definitely in my opinion the most beautiful spider in the world. I’d kill to go see them in their habitat!
Hey Michelle – thanks for this! :) I feel especially lucky now to have seen this beautiful specimen in the wild (and totally by chance!).
Wow Tom,
I guess this spider was coming back from a carnival party and still had it’s costume on:)
No, seriously, I never saw anything like it, even on NatGeo… You should send those pics to them :)
I also have a theory about the colored abdomen: it looks like that is the head, so a predator trying to catch it would anticipate it running away in that direction, while in fact it goes the other way… sort of a compensation for the otherwise over-visibility…
A prey animal also could think (as far as they do that): “no worries, it’s head is on the other side”, and WHAM… perdeu… :)
Cheers
Forgot to ask: Where did you encounter this beautiful creature?
This was in Bahia. And thankfully much less scary than that Wandering Spider from your link (shudder)…
Ok, I did some research, and apparently it is a Greenbottle Blue Tarantula, and it is normally found in Venezuela. The one you saw in Bahia could have been imported and escaped or something…
Apparently these spiders are very popular with hobby spider keepers and an adult specimen costs up to 250$ or 500 R$…
Hee hee – read the comments Raf! ;) Our initial identification was Greenbottle Blue Tarantula, but then the mysterious goodoldneon swooped in to drop the name Iridopelma seladonium in our laps. The distribution also fits. After another quick search I found this pretty conclusive paper:
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbzool/v25n4/19.pdf
I’m quite excited to hear that this is described as “very rare” – now I feel even luckier to have seen it :)
Since 2012 – Typhochlaena seladonia
http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/3500
it’s amazing how many undiscovered species are still wandering inside Brazilian forests in 2012. You could have named this new species with your name. And I am not kidding!
When I was a kid a very strange bird arrived some day in our garden and we have never seen one like that again. I used to live in a very beautiful place called Itacoatiara, in a city near Rio, called Niteroi. that neighbourhood is really deep inside the forest and there are many strange animals and weird bugs there, even monkeys! Just like when the Simpsons visited Brazil. LOL. you should go there some day man, there is a national park there too and a amazing beach.
Ah, Itacoatiara sounds great! I went to Niteroi once, but that was a long time ago. I need to explore more over there! :)
Awesome find! That’s a Typhochlaena seladonia mature male! Used to be known as Iridopelma seladonium.