antonsrkn
High altitude Hapalotremus
Hapalotremus sp - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
What lurks in the shadows of the rocky windswept puna of high Andes? On an uncharacteristically warm night its an impressively large tarantula which has emerged from the shelter of its burrow underneath a rock pile. Little is known of the tarantulas that inhabit the highest reaches of the mountain passes, just last year 7 new species were described from the area and surroundings but there are more yet to be officially described, including this species. This species and most of the new tarantulas are in the Hapalotremus genus, a group of tarantulas that live higher in the mountains than any other members of their family. To survive at the high altitudes and freezing temperatures they spend most of their time in burrows underneath rocks where presumably a semi stable temperature is maintained but research is currently lacking. Interestingly, different valleys in the Cordillera often seem to host different species despite geographic proximity same with the elevational gradient. We'd spend the night at one location where we would encounter one tarantula species, then the next morning load up the packhorses and trek for 9 hours across the rough landscape and when we searched for frogs at the new campsite the tarantulas we found were sometimes of a whole different species than at the previous locale. Tarantulas, their niche partitioning and biogeography are not my area of expertise but it would be cool to someday see a map of Andean valleys with the tarantulas that occur there. I suspect there are high levels of speciation and thus endemism almost like whats been found in freshwater fish in some stream environments that may be close to each other geographically but have no to little gene flow between them. But thats just a guess with no scientific backing at this point of course.
High altitude Hapalotremus
Hapalotremus sp - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
What lurks in the shadows of the rocky windswept puna of high Andes? On an uncharacteristically warm night its an impressively large tarantula which has emerged from the shelter of its burrow underneath a rock pile. Little is known of the tarantulas that inhabit the highest reaches of the mountain passes, just last year 7 new species were described from the area and surroundings but there are more yet to be officially described, including this species. This species and most of the new tarantulas are in the Hapalotremus genus, a group of tarantulas that live higher in the mountains than any other members of their family. To survive at the high altitudes and freezing temperatures they spend most of their time in burrows underneath rocks where presumably a semi stable temperature is maintained but research is currently lacking. Interestingly, different valleys in the Cordillera often seem to host different species despite geographic proximity same with the elevational gradient. We'd spend the night at one location where we would encounter one tarantula species, then the next morning load up the packhorses and trek for 9 hours across the rough landscape and when we searched for frogs at the new campsite the tarantulas we found were sometimes of a whole different species than at the previous locale. Tarantulas, their niche partitioning and biogeography are not my area of expertise but it would be cool to someday see a map of Andean valleys with the tarantulas that occur there. I suspect there are high levels of speciation and thus endemism almost like whats been found in freshwater fish in some stream environments that may be close to each other geographically but have no to little gene flow between them. But thats just a guess with no scientific backing at this point of course.