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Pterinochilus murinus (Usambara Baboon)

The P. murinus or commonly known as the Usambara or Starburst Baboon is an old world species from the mountains of Kenya and Tanzania found everywhere from burrows to logs and some are even said to be arboreal. Very dry tollerant this is a very hardy species. Their color ranges from a bright red to orange and some a golden yellow. These were once thought to be different species but are now believed to be just different color morphs of P. murinus. A fast grower, uncommon for such a dry tollerant species. Doesn't have urticating hairs but has the old world attitude and will bite readily. A very defensive and sometimes aggressive species they will hiss loudly and snap at the slightest provocation and definitely should not to be handled.

My P. murinus:
I have a 5" mature female. She is a short tempered little monster that will lash out at the slightest distubance. She will hiss loudly and jump around baring her fangs when I clean her cage. The only tarantula that has escaped on me and it took me a week to find her. She has since seemed depressed and rather than take a theat posture like before she will run and hide. May just be going into pre-molt. She has only molted once in my care so I can't say anything about her growth rate.

Housing:
I keep her on a thick layer of peat moss with a piece of cork bark for a hide. She makes thick webs around her hide sometimes making it hard to see her. I keep her pretty dry at around 60-65% humidity with just a waterdish. I keep her temperature the same as all of my tarantulas at 80-84F.

my female
my female again
up close and personal
a little too close :O
a close up