Omothymus schioedtei

Omothymus schioedtei is an arboreal tarantula native to Malaysia and lives in retreats high in the trees of the tropical rainforest. This is a very large spider than can attain a leg span of 8in in the case of adult females. Previously this was also sold under the names Cyriopagopus schioedtei and Cyriopagopus thorelli. This tarantula was recently treated in a taxonomic paper by Gabriel & Sherwood (2019) who found the type specimen of C. thorelli and O. schioedtei to be identical and synonymised them.

O. schioedtei is a dark coloured spider in all life stages. Spiderlings have the abdominal pattern which lasts until the specimen becomes adult. The males are sexually dimorphic even as juveniles and mature to be bright beige. Females take on a dark and beautiful black colour with stripes on the abdomen.

This is a defensive and fast species, which should be housed with a cork bark tube, on several inches of coir with a waterbowl. Like most Asian arboreals they are best kept at an ambient temperature of 23-25 degrees and the coir should be slightly moist.