#142 - FIRST (last?) POST OF 2017

I hope the new year is treating you well. This blog sort of ran its course with my complete retirement from exotic animal breeding and sales. My only tie to arachnoculture is as Editor of the Journal of the British Tarantula Society. My final ties to herpetoculture ended when my last run of my Spider Shoppe began. I traded my carpet pythons and geckos and huge tarantula breeding operation in Seattle area for one last gasp of tarantula breeding when I returned to Illinois in 2013. Of course, the reason I am, now in 2017, living entirely on the road is to continue my interest in reptiles and arachnids as a naturalist, writer and photographer. 40+ years of cages is enough. I don't even like temporarily detaining creatures I find.

Just thought I'd drop a line here to tell you that my blogging does continue. I've already posted 53 times this year at my new PIKEY blog. I don't rant much. It is a travelogue to my 2017 adventures in the United States. January and March I largely in Florida. February was Kuching, Borneo and Langkawi Island, Malaysia. April has been Texas. I write this from the far west mountains around Alpine, TX. Next week I will be meeting arachnologist Brent Hendrixson, Ph.D. and three of his honor students from Mississippi's Milsaps College to chase some scorpions in the Catalinas.

Hopefully some of you have been catching the new blog, but I invite the rest of you to check it out. I thank everyone who checks out my @jacobipix Instagram feed. I have well over 100 new wildlife images captured this year posted. Last night I posted fourteen more to include scorpions, snakes and lizards from Boquillas Canyon and other areas of Big Bend National Park. I observed the psammophilous (sand-dwelling) endemic scorpion Parauroctonus boquillas and that was a highlight. The big, hairy spiders are represented by Aphonopelma moderatum from Webb County, TX and A. hentzi from Brewster County. True spiders range from Macracantha cancriformis to Argiope argentite to a beautiful Phiddipus sp. (poss. arizonensis) from Seminole Canyon. Snakes? Mojave Rattlesnake, Red Racer/Western Coachwhip and, from Borneo, Tropidolaemus waglerifrom Bako National Park, Sarawak. There's loads more and croc lovers will see American Crocodiles and gators from Everglades National Park and a Texas gator. I've been doing a lot of bird photography this year and have some treasured shots from Malaysia, Florida and Texas. A hornbill image from Langkawi and a Golden-fronted Woodpecker from Big Bend are personal favorites as are the ospreys of the everglades. Mammals, birds, reptiles, arachnids ... just check out the pix. When I get more time I will be updating my SmugMug fine photo galleries with higher resolution files that may even be purchased.

I don't feel like telling anyone to "kiss my big hairy spider" any more. I'm living the dream and off the grid. I hope you'll instead consider checking out my tales from the road in the new blog. I'll leave you with this image of me horseback on the other side of the Rio Grande in Boquillas del Carmen, México. — Cheers, MJ

#137 - Poecilotheria subfusca and P. sp. highland

Poecilotheria subfusca is from the Kandy region and "P. bara" is a junior synonym and using the name "bara" in any format is invalid. The highland spider from the alpine forests around Nuwara Eliya should be properly called P. sp. highland.

Period. End of. Full stop. Finito.

Wanna read more and learn why? Join the BTS! The December issue of the Journal of the British Tarantula Society will feature my article on the topic.

#123 - FREE COPY OF THE PREMIERE ISSUE OF THE BTS NEWSLETTER

I've mentioned in earlier entries that when I assumed the Editorship of the prestigious Journal of the British Tarantula Society I decided to create a sister publication. The new BTS Newsletter was launched to provide members more "bang for their buck", as well as to become home for some features that I deemed unsuitable for the Journal.

Today I posted a link in the BTS Facebook Group that allows the general public to download the premier issue of the Newsletter for FREE. I wanted it to reach a greater audience and, hopefully, entice more people who haven't become BTS members to join. Our membership year runs June 1 to May 31 and all memberships are due for renewal. My post also serves to remind people to renew.

Now I realize many of my blog readership is American. Perhaps you've never joined the BTS because you've considered it a foreign organization. I assure you that the BTS is global in its reach and is truly an international society. I also think all of you have learned by now that our American Tarantula Society has never become even a fraction of what the great BTS is. The ATS has always been a disappointment and likely always will be. The annual conference has always been its one success. To be clear, I am not discouraging supporting them. With more support perhaps the new regime will finally make it a society worth being a member of. But for 31 years the BTS has been that and much more. I highly recommend at least a digital-only membership so you get the SIX Newsletters and THREE 50-page full color Journals per annum. If you can afford it, choosing the print option (about $53/year) allows you to hold the beautiful publication that I now have the honor of editing and designing.

Anyway, without further ado and advertisement, here is the link to download BTS Newsletter 1:

http://www.thebts.co.uk/download/bts-newsletter/

Please SHARE this blog entry or at least the above link everywhere and anywhere. Let's spread the word about this FREE issue of the debut Newsletter to as many people as possible. Cheers, MJ

#112 - MONDAY RANDOMNESS

Greetings to all who have stuck with Kiss My Big Hairy Spider despite my reduced output. I appreciate every one of you who still checks in with this blog. My last series of posts, which chronicled the 14th BTS Lectures, sadly only had 25-35 page views each so I definitely have lost readership. But since I know that some of my closer arachnocultural friends like John Apple and Tom Patterson continue to read KMBHS so that is enough for me to keep writing. Hopefully I will find some topics with wider appeal and some of you will help me by sharing the blog link via forums and social media.

The real reason my readership is down is that I have retired and have ceased using Facebook, Arachnoboards and the like. I am not promoting the blog except to share each new post via Google+ (pretty automatic as Blogger is a Google product) and also via my @exoticfauna Twitter account. Also, Scott and Debby Scher have been kind enough to give me a banner ad on AB. I ask that y'all help me by sharing new blog entries as I'd at least like the page views to double.

As I review the page views of the last 111 posts it is obvious that my early rants and the more instructional spider keeping posts are favored above others. However, to be honest, I will write what I want. I'm an independent prog extreme metal guy ... I'm not looking to make a pop single (if that analogy works).

So ... although I am sure there were readers not interested in the BTS posts, I would like to wrap up that series here as I know some of my primary readers are already members. I won't solicit new members again. I think it's a no-brainer for anyone seriously into arachnoculture to be a member even if only via the budget digital only method, but I am not going to flog a dead horse. I will just say that, as the attendance at the Lectures proved once again, the BTS is an INTERNATIONAL organization. The "B" stands for British, but our membership is worldwide and there is no arguing that it is the premiere English-language organization and the best option for American arachnid enthusiasts.

So, to wrap up the series of my trip to Bristol for the 14th Annual Lectures, I would like to report on the AGM (Annual General Meeting). This is the committee meeting that all members can attend and it is held Lectures weekend to make it easy for regular members who are at the Lectures to attend. Sadly, the non-committee attendance was disappointing. However, it was an important committee meeting as the couple that have been running our Membership Office have resigned and we now are seeking new qualified volunteers. In the interim, the Head Office, ran for years by Angela and Ray Hale, will handle membership duties. Another major topic was the Journal and the transition to my taking over as Editor. I proposed that we create a bi-monthly digital-only Newsletter to give members more bang for their buck and to have an appropriate home for some features that I do not consider appropriate for the Journal (e.g., Letters to the Editor, Book Reviews, cartoons, brief breeding reports, etc.). The motion was passed and I am now working on this project and hope to have the premier issue online within the next 30 days. Finally, another important topic was our Research Grant. The BTS accepts proposals for funding and we select a project to fund with 500 of those British Pounds. We only had one submission and therefore voted to contribute to a Brazilian graduate student's work. Dr. Stuart Longhorn oversees this Research Grant, and I will get him to write some info on this work for the new Newsletter. By the way, this blog entry is the first public announcement about the new Newsletter. So my KMBHS readers get a scoop. I appreciate you following me here and will give you little scoops when I can.

Since I keep mentioning the BTS, in fairness I will mention that the ATS is holding a conference this year. As most of you know, they cancelled the conference for the first time in 16 years last summer and "Ken the Bug Guy" held what he and his wife Georgi called a "placeholder event" at the same resort. I was an ATS member from the beginning, but admit I have no intention of being one again. In my opinion all the ATS has ever offered is the conference. It is now held at an amazing location in Tucson, Arizona and I highly recommend attending. When I spoke in 2014, I was duly impressed with the weekend. I must give kudos to those who ran it. However, the ATS has been plagued by poor leadership over the years or had a decent leader whose volunteer board members didn't pull their weight. There has never been a cohesive unit; there has never been a publication worth reading save for the odd decent article (such as Joy Reed's report on breeding Grammostola pulchra). The conference is their one success and I encourage my readers to attend. Remember, these are just my opinions based on involvement since the Carlsbad days and Spider Bob's questionable operation. I wish them the best and I hope they prove me wrong and find a way to succeed. However, they need some qualified volunteers who can produce a professional website and periodical. For 15+ years they have had only the most amateurish internet and printed publication presence. What makes the BTS succeed is committee members who are dedicated and pull their weight. Each has the skill set required for each job. We don't just take anyone willing as these type of people soon have waning interest and drift away. We also wouldn't have, for example, a Treasurer who can't even balance his or her checkbook. You need QUALIFIED, highly dedicated volunteers in EVERY position on your board/committee and the ATS has never had this. But their conference is very good and their current location is amazing. I doubt I'll ever attend again as I travel so much for my own pursuits (including my own trips to Arizona). They'd have to invite me to be keynote speaker and pick up my tab to get me to come again. I don't expect that will happen and, to be honest, in retirement I think any arachnid related lectures I do in the future would be reserved for the BTS. I also have been asked to lecture in Hungary in 2017. I will need to take another field trip in the interim to come up with material as I don't really have much to offer as far as keeping and breeding go now that I've ceased doing so. I am still working with a group of Avicularia sooretama and Harpactira pulchripes, but I don't think there is lecture material there. As far as field trips go, in February 2017 I plan to return to Langkawi, Malaysia with Mark Pennell and company and it is likely that we will spend a weekend beforehand in Sarawak, Borneo. Mark found an interesting new arboreal on Langkawi last month so perhaps there is a lecture or a paper in all of this. However, most of my public speaking will now be limited to teaching defensive handgun technique.

But, let's return to the BTS Journal for a moment... For those of you who are members and are wondering when the next issue will be released, I am happy to report that I will be sending 31(1)/March 2016 to the printer in England today. I won't reveal much about the content, but I will give you a scoop. Tom Patterson and I have collaborated on an article about Heteropoda sp. huntsman spiders. I'm not going to mount an American takeover of the Journal, but it does make me happy to include American authors other than myself. I encourage some of you to consider writing. If you need my help I am happy to come on as co-author. If it is a brief article that may not be a Journal piece I now have the Newsletter to publish it. All I need is notes and outline and I can write it, so you need not worry about your ability as a writer. Of course, photos are always welcome too (preferably 300 dpi CMYK TIFF files, not iPhone pix!). On that note, let's all ask Chad Campbell to do a photography article for the first Newsletter. Chad will be my guest this coming weekend (along with Jason Newland, John Apple and some yet unnamed friends - probably Rob Mitchell). I will talk to him then. An article by Chad would be a great feature piece for the debut of the Newsletter.

In closing, I will mention that I apologize that ArachnoGathering became a two years and out event just like ArachnoCon. This coming weekend is the March NARBC when #3 would have been held. When I created ArachnoGathering I had planned for a longer run, but in retirement I have no desire. It's funny that even though Chad and Apple and Co. will be here this weekend, none of us have any interest in going to the NARBC show. 33 professional years of reptiles and spiders; over 40 as a keeper. Enough for me.

OK, I must get back to putting the finishing touches on the Journal file and get it to the printer. I'll leave you here. Until next time, MJ

#60 - THE BRITISH TARANTULA SOCIETY

I am the North American Coordinator of The British Tarantula Society, which is the world's oldest ongoing society devoted to tarantula spiders and other arachnids. My role is to increase membership in the United States, Canada and Mexico, promote the B.T.S. wherever possible and liaise with North American groups with similar goals such as the American Tarantula Society. I recently functioned in the latter role by discussing with Jen Newman the future plans of the ATS and how they are changing and rebuilding to keep the American organization moving forward.

I urge all of you to become members of the greatest English-language tarantula society and support the British Tarantula Society's efforts in education and conservation. The BTS Journal is the premier arachnocultural publication and a full membership entitles you to three issues of this fantastic Journal per membership year. Although the name states "British", the BTS is an international organization and welcomes arachnid enthusiasts from around the globe.

The BTS Membership year runs from June 1 until May 31. Those of you who are American members probably received your membership kits for the current year yesterday. Unfortunately, the release of Journal 30(2) was delayed a bit and the Journal and its accompanying kit were behind schedule. Included in the kit was a personalized membership card, a bookmark featuring the "Best in Show" from this past May's BTS Exhibition, a very nice sticker and a fun magnet set that allows you to creatively match words, scientific names, etc. on your fridge or other magnetic surface.

I am always perfectly frank about the cost of being an overseas BTS Member. Last time I checked with international postage for your three Journals, etc. it is about $55 in ugly green American dollars. I fully realize that this is cost prohibitive for some people. If you just look at it as $18 per Journal you may find the expense too much. However, if you look at it as also being part of the leading tarantula-oriented organization and contributing to our efforts both in education and conservation you will hopefully realize the investment is worthwhile. Personally, holding the beautiful full color Journal in your hands, which is packed with the writings of leading arachnoculturists and contains serious articles and even peer-reviewed species descriptions, is worth the cost alone for those who can afford it. If your budget is tighter you may become a digital only member and download the full color PDF instead at somewhere just above $22 or so for the year. I solicit your membership and hope that you'll join our group. Please visit http://www.thebts.co.uk/bts-memberships/ for more info and to sign up. If you have further questions about membership do not hesitate to contact Phil and/or Erin in our Membership Office at membership@thebts.co.uk.

BTS Journal Volume 30(2), which just arrived along with this year's membership kit, is extra special to me. I am one of the proofreaders for the Journal, but 30(2) also contains two articles written by your intrepid blogger. In fact, why I don't just list the table of contents so you can see the quality of articles our professionally printed full-color Journal contains. This isn't some amateurish xeroxed DIY assemblage of hobbyist notes and filler. This is a first-rate publication.

• Chilobrachys guangxiensis: A rediscovery by Hans Cools
• Some notes and observations on the breeding of Acanthoscurria sternalis by Ray Gabriel
• Notes on the first American breeding of Pachistopelma rufonigrum by Michael Jacobi
• Monocentropus lambertoni - A brief overview owith comments on habitat and questions on the validity of our hobby identification by Michael Jacobi
• Conservation of the critically endangered Desertas Wolf Spider by Mark Bushell
• Additional comments on specimens of the genus Hysterocrates by Daniella Sherwood
• The sexing of early instar tarantula moults by Emma Lambert
• Tarantulas of the World (Book Review) by Peter Kirk

This is a stellar line up of articles and is representative of the quality of information contained in our Journal. You won't find this anywhere else and membership will entitle you to a few previous back issues (online) as well. I am very pleased to have two important articles of my own in this recent issue, but I'd also like to point out one other. Mark Bushell's work with the Desertas Wolf Spider is partially funded with a £500 contribution by the British Tarantula Society. And getting back to my Pachistopelma rufonigrum article, I was pleased to ask my friends and fellow photogs Chad Campbell and Michael Pankratz to add some pix to my article and they added a great deal.

I know money is tight for many in the arachnoculture hobby, but if you can swing $22 or so please consider an "e-membership". But there is nothing like the glossy, color Journal in hand so if you can skip a trip to a restaurant or the movie theater this month please think about full membership. It's 20 quid, plus £15 more for international postage so thats £35 total - currently $55.21. We welcome members from around the world and would be glad to have you on board. I'm sure you'll agree that the Journal content alone makes it worthwhile, but you'll also be supporting our research grants and worldwide promotion of spider conservation and education.

If you have any questions about the BTS please don't hesitate to email me at spidershoppe@icloud.com.

All the best, MJ