On TV in the program, "mooiloop", they visited a boy in Haenertsburg who was known as spiderman by the locals. He showed the interviewer a few T's and even let a L.parahybana walk from his hand to the interviewer's, stating it was a tame spider. They then went on to say that they live for fifty (yes 50) years.

Then they discussed a new species he discovered. He had apparently sent info to England and was requested to supply them with specimens.

Does anyone have any more info?

Saw a part of this as well.

Deon wrote: ... and even let a L.parahybana walk from his hand to the interviewer's, stating it was a tame spider. ...

This is not too surprising since LPs tame down nicely, usually with very little effort. The trick is to start the taming/training process before they get too big. I recommend starting when the tarantula can just barely span a standard coffee cup. Any smaller and they're a little too delicate for the newbie to handle safely. Any larger and they'll arm wrestle you to the floor!

Deon wrote: ... They then went on to say that they live for fifty (yes 50) years. ...

Out to lunch on this one. Because the tarantula keeping hobby really didn't start until Baerg wrote The Tarantula in 1958, and most enthusiasts really didn't even think of breeding tarantulas until Brachypelma smithi was put on CITES Appendix II in the mid 1980s, and the rest of the Brachypelma in the 1990s, and Lasiodora parahybana hadn't even been smuggled out of South America before that, few of the longer lived species have been kept and bred in captivity long enough for them to have grown up, matured and died of old age for us. Any age guesstimates are just whistling in the wind.

I'm not saying it isn't possible. There are a number of species with achingly slow growth and development that might easily fill that bill. I'm just saying that this really hasn't been documented yet, so making such declarations is going out on a limb a bit at this point.

As far as a new species being discovered, well we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?


Contrary to popular opinion, tarantulas aren't weird. Humanoids are!

Sounds like an excuse to make cash off our locals. We have spider people here too

I thought this topic would attract more lively discussion :laugh: We are all quite careful when lifting opinion since the "Ray" debacle. Still, I found it astonishing that a national TV program would air such ill researched program and just put it on air without questions.

I'm wondering about the "new species", because what was shown, looked like a Tarantula. This should have been made much more fuss about, because that is big ! Anybody with the smallest bit of knowledge would have wanted to know if it was a baboon spider at the least.

If we can find a link to view the video it would be great

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