Poecilotheria fasciata
Latreille 1804
This is the Poecilotheria fasciata, A spider from the isle of Sri lanka. They live in trees, mainly the dead ones. These trees contain lots of holes, where the spider crawls into to sleep by day. And awakens at dawn. The thing is, that these old trees are mostly seen as firewood for people who live there, they also cut these trees down to make room for plantations of palmtrees. P. fasciata is the only Poecilotheria wich has adapted to cultivated fields. The poki' live in the holes of the palmtrees! Because of destruction of their natural habitat, they are lightly to be on the CITES-list next year.
The spider doesn't live very long and doesn't get much offspring in a year. In an egg-sac there are usually between 40-80 eggs. The young P. fasciata live in the burrow of their mother the first few months, and like the other Poecilotheria sp. the young animals are known to be terrestrial, so they dig burrows!
These spider can be kept in a so called "communal tank". This means you can keep em in groups. If you give them lots of places to hide, and feed on regular basis, no problem! These beutiful spider make excellent pets, when I go to bed, she's always just awake and wandering aroud, to see her geourgios yellow legs, magnificent!
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