there is no doubt that the T looks really pretty. im kind of stuck in the middle with this one.. lots of dogs and cats have been bred with diff ones and they all fine and healthy... its normal for humans as well eg: my friends dad is indian and his mother is chinese,there is nothing wrong with him. surely its the same concept with T's... maybe if you mixing things like a pokie with a curl hair thats wrong but the same genus like 2 diff types of brachypelma????? as i said im nutral dont beat me

The fact of the matter is that this is currently happening and it will increase as more people get involved in the hobby. The "scientist" in some people will just get the better of them and they will experiment. This has been going on with plants, birds and animals for a very long time to the extent that you sometimes pay double or triple the amount for a hybrid that you would have paid for the original.

Who remembers Dolly the cloned sheep.....there were major public outcry that this is wrong, but it still happened. Since then they probably cloned much more, but its not making the news any more.

If T's were not meant to inter breed it would not be possible or as stated before all offspring will be sterile. If the offspring however is fertile then what does than mean?

Spiders or more specifically tarantulas are some of the creatures on planet earth that has evolved very slowly when compared to other animals. Currently there are just of 800 described species with an estimated 2000 (I might have the figure wrong, but it's a lot) still to be discovered, so they keep on finding new species in areas they have been collecting in for years. Spiders in general have also not been studied for very long, so we don't know very much about them. Therefore we can not state that natural hybridisation has not happened and that every known species currently did not come form natural hybridisation in the past.

Please don't get me wrong as I would prefer one of each of the 800 species first before I would even consider getting a hybrid, but hybrids will not be stopped. Unfortunately this will probably be done by inexperienced keepers or for fun rather than to be studied and then it will turn into a money making thing as usual.

Jakes wrote:

If T's were not meant to inter breed it would not be possible or as stated before all offspring will be sterile. If the offspring however is fertile then what does than mean?

I am kinda with you there, and also another question is that, in the wild, what is stopping them from cross breeding?

Vortex....... Im on the line aswell here

I do however have concerns how it would effect the two species numbers in the end? Wouldn't it make them less?

Angel wrote:

...another question is that, in the wild, what is stopping them from cross breeding?

Mostly it'll be simply location. But every species or even subspecies is uniquely adapted to the habitats they naturally occur in.

...and

I do however have concerns how it would effect the two species numbers in the end? Wouldn't it make them less?

Every successful crossbreeding between two species equals a breeding lost on the pure species. So, yes, in my opinion it will lessen their numbers.... and add to the confusion of tarantulas in the pet trade.

Jakes, very well said.

I agree with what you said Jakes. Personally, I will never attempt hybridising spiders. As we all know, we know more about the universe than we know about our own ocean, I am just very curious how a number can be asigned to "estimated undiscovered" species?

I estimate there are about 25 million undiscovered stars... ? Huh... ? How...? :dry: