Along Came a Spider

Mystery Tarantula - Mt. Kinabalu, Malaysia

 

Chipping away at my stockpile of photos, another older image from Borneo. I am used to seeing many tarantulas in the tropics and I was a bit surprised at how few I encountered in Bornean Malaysia. However I did find them rather plentiful in Gunung Kinabalu National Park. This high altitude montane species makes its home in the cloud forest on the slopes of Mt. Kinabalu, they're not terribly big but they are extremely quick and the slightest disturbance will cause them to vanish in a flash back into their burrow. It seemed like most of these spiders were arboreal and found up off the ground with their shelter tucked in among the mosses and tree trunks. This one made its home in a fallen tree that was still propped upright but was beginning to decay. Like many of the inverts of Mt. Kinabalu I wouldn't be terribly surprised to learn that this is another endemic species found only in the highlands of Malaysian Borneo, but I haven't been able to ID this species and tell for sure.

Done