The South Russian tarantula or Mizgir (Lycosa singoriensis) is a relatively large arachnid whose habitat is gradually expanding. More and more often, the spider is found in gardens and vegetable gardens, and sometimes it gets into houses. The impressive size of the spider and other external features often frighten people, who, in turn, provoke the tarantula to attack.
South Russian tarantula (mizgir), appearance
Name
In Russian and Ukrainian it is called the South Russian tarantula (due to the distribution of the species in the south of Russia). Popularly called “mizgir”.
In other languages, it is often named after the territories where it is found: Romanian (Romanian românească), Tatar (Czech tatarský), Ukrainian (Polish ukraińska), Dzungarian and the like.
Female
From karakurt to tarantula: Which Ural spiders are the most dangerous
The conference is dedicated to the anniversary of Tyshchenko’s reference book - 50 years ago the first scientific guide to spiders found in the European part of the USSR was published. Is this such an important event?
Yuri Marusik: Before the publication of the reference book, spiders were practically not studied: there was no complete guide in Russian, only short or regional ones. You had to speak either English or German to learn how to collect, examine and identify spiders. So, domestic arachnologist scientists owe a lot to Tyshchenko’s identification - now we have the opportunity to study spiders all over the world.
Are they really everywhere?
Yuri Marusik: It’s easier to say where spiders don’t live. In the northern hemisphere - everywhere, even in the tidal zone, which is under water twice a day. Spiders have not been found only in Antarctica, but in the Arctic - everywhere. Spiders are cold-blooded; they do not need to eat to maintain their temperature, like mammals and birds (this is where up to 90 percent of the energy received from food is spent). By the way, Arctic species are record holders among Russian ones in terms of life expectancy - 5-6 years. Many spiders live for several months, but there are also centenarians who are over 30 years old.
The conference logo, in addition to spiders, depicts scorpions and ticks. Are they also classified as arachnids?
Yuri Marusik: Yes, the class Arachnida (hence arachnology), in Russian arachnids, in addition to spiders includes orders of scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, salpugs, several orders of mites.
Mating cannibalism of spiders is known, when after mating the female eats her partner. It turns out that the spiderlings are raised by “single mothers”?
Yuri Marusik: Many animals raise children alone; among arthropods, only male sea spiders (very distant relatives of arachnids) take care of their offspring. There are species of spiders where the males take part in protecting the cocoons, but this is an exception. Another feature: not only females eat males, but also children eat their mothers, and there are many such species: the female, already barely alive, serves as the first food for the offspring.
View this post on Instagram
Publication from Artyom Sozontov (@reg.n.0199)
I wonder how many species of spiders live in Russia? Are they opening new ones?
Yuri Marusik: According to the latest data, 2,397 species are known in Russia, with an average of about 50 being added every year. And in the world, over 600 are described every year. Discovering a new species is not at all the same as describing: you need to publish an article or a book, only then the name becomes "legal". At the beginning of February, there were 49,165 living species of spiders known in the world.
How much with Ural registration?
Sergey Yesyunin: At last count, 800 species live in the Urals. On the territory of Bashkortostan, 457 are known. The steppe Urals are very rich in arachnids, where spiders not yet known to science are constantly found. About twenty Ural species have already been described and about a dozen are waiting for their existence to become known to the scientific community.
Global warming is already a reality. Heat-loving trees in central Russia have been spotted in the Urals, and Caucasian hogweed has become familiar. Along with them, spiders are probably exploring new territories?
Artem Sozontov: Spiders following the hogweed have not yet been noticed, but global climate change is really mixing things up. The most famous example is the wasp spider from the orb weaver family. Weaves finely patterned webs and travels long distances using rising air currents and webs, like a paraglider. Much has been written about its spread to the north; even the rate of spread can be roughly estimated and predicted. Another thing is that some spiders appear, while others disappear for the same reasons. But we don’t know anything about this yet, because noticing the absence of a species is much more difficult than its presence.
Which of the Ural spiders are most dangerous to humans?
Artem Sozontov: Due to the colossal difference in size, spiders do not perceive people as potential prey. And chelicerae - oral appendages - of most species are not able to bite through human skin. A few spiders with a body length of 10-15 millimeters can pose a threat. For example, dolomedes, which lives near stagnant bodies of water, the South Russian tarantula, listed in many regional Red Books, as well as large species of crosses: their bite can cause pain, itching, local inflammation and allergic reactions. In the south of the Urals, in the Orenburg region and Bashkortostan, karakurt is found. Its poison is much more dangerous, even fatal. However, all these spiders attack only when disturbed. Tourists and “photo hunters” just need to keep their distance and not disturb them.
There is a belief that killing a spider in the house is bad luck. Are spiders in general harmful or beneficial? Is it worth fighting them?
View this post on Instagram
Publication from Artyom Sozontov (@reg.n.0199)
Artem Sozontov: I can give you the exact opposite example of a belief: whoever kills a spider will have 40 sins forgiven. It is scientifically incorrect to label any group of animals as beneficial or harmful. Each species performs its own function in nature. From the point of view of human activity, primarily agricultural, spiders are on our side, since they consume a large number of insects as food. For example, dividing continuous monoculture crops with uncultivated strips of land can reduce crop losses from insects by 25 percent—without the use of insecticides. It is uncomfortable for predators and parasitoids to live in cultivated fields, but uncultivated strips remain a natural reservoir for them.
What is happening with ticks in the Sverdlovsk region and in the Urals Federal District? Are their numbers growing?
Sergey Yesyunin: Most of these organisms are microscopic, as a rule, known only to specialists. The average reader is mostly familiar with ixodid ticks. Their numbers have little to do with climate. For them, the number of “feeders” for their larvae is more important. Unlike adult ticks, which attack large warm-blooded animals, larvae suck the blood of rodents. How did the rodents survive the winter? Fine? This means that their numbers will increase and the larva will have something to eat. In this case, expect an increase in the number of attacks by adult ticks on humans. A competent supervisory service manager knows about this connection, will order disinfestation of places of public recreation in advance and will not allow negative consequences.
What do experts say: should we expect an increase in the number of ticks?
Sergey Yesyunin: This question should be answered separately in each region. The movement of new species to the north is alarming. At the conference, a report was presented that Dermacentorus, a species potentially dangerous to humans, was discovered in the Perm region. It can make the usual schemes for combating blood-sucking ticks ineffective. Typically, acaricidal treatment is carried out in the spring or early summer, when adult taiga ticks are actively attached. But the dermacentor is equally comfortable in both spring and autumn coolness. So far, this tick is rarely found in the Perm region, but in the future it can create serious problems.
By the way
Russian arachnologists are among the top five world scientists in terms of the number of species described. Yuri Marusik described 600 species of spiders and named them in honor of colleagues, teachers, collectors, and three in honor of his favorite girls. The spider "Gorbachev", like "Joker", is also his contribution.
This is interesting
We asked Yuri Marusik how they come up with a name for a new species of spider. It turned out to be different: it can be associated with the location of the find, with the shape of the body or color, the name of the collector who found the specimen, or the scientist. One arachnologist came up with the idea of giving the “newcomers” names in honor of the gods, great actresses, for example, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, still alive at that time. A Russian arachnologist recently named two species after the actors who played Spider-Man. And last year, the spider was named “Joker” - due to the similarity of the mask and abdomen (alas, the world media did not mention that the co-author of the species was from Russia). There was even a spider named after Mikhail Gorbachev. The marsh kikimora (Kikimora palustris) actually exists, but is rarely seen. Previously known only in Siberia, but recently found in Northern Finland. The dwarf species is 2.5 millimeters in length, but the individuals are quite cute.
View this post on Instagram
Publication from Artyom Sozontov (@reg.n.0199)
Description
One of the largest spiders in Europe, the largest in Central Europe and Ukraine. Body size up to 4 cm, with legs up to 7 cm. Body weight from 2.6 to 7 grams. The upper side of the body is variegated, the sides are light, the upper side of the abdomen is black. The body is covered with gray and white hairs of different lengths, so it looks shaggy. On the cephalothorax there is a pattern of dark stripes extending radially from the center. The main segment of the chelicerum is bright yellow or orange, the tip and claw are black. The pedipalps are also yellow except for the black tip. Legs underneath with black rings.
Thanks to its protective coloring, the South Russian tarantula is perfectly camouflaged on the soil surface
Sexual dimorphism
Females have a larger abdomen and short legs compared to males and are stockier. The hairs of males are lighter. The size of males is 14–27 mm, females - from 18 to 31 mm, according to some sources - up to 35 mm.
Male
Races
There are three “races” of South Russian tarantulas: large, small and intermediate. The large one is found only in the south of Central Asia, the intermediate one is found most northern. Small common in the south of the steppes. All races interbreed freely with each other.
How do they reproduce?
Most often, reproduction in tarantulas occurs in the second half of August. The male weaves a web somewhere in a safe place, and then rubs his abdomen against it. Ejaculation occurs, the fertilization fluid remains on the web. After this, the male lowers the pedipalps there, they absorb the seed and become ready for fertilization of the female tarantula.
Spiders have a courtship period - when they find a female, they perform a dance for her. If the female responds favorably, the male lowers the pedipalps into her cloaca, after which fertilization occurs. An interesting point: the male needs to hide from the fertilized individual as quickly as possible, otherwise she may eat him.
After fertilization, the concern for prolongation of the race passes to the female. She weaves a cocoon where the eggs will be laid. The maximum quantity per clutch is up to 2,000 eggs. They mature for up to 50 days, after which small arthropods are born. As a rule, they reach sexual maturity by 2-3 years.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle is similar to that of the closely related Apulian tarantula (Lycosa tarantula).
Female in the ornithological reserve Bulakhovsky Estuary, Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk region
Nutrition
The female South Russian tarantula digs a more or less vertical hole up to 50–60 cm deep, the inner wall of which is covered with cobwebs. The entrance to the hole is about the diameter of a mouse hole, the web protrudes from the surface of the soil and is reinforced by twisted stems of grass and other plants. It does not build a trapping net, but reacts to the movement of prey, which approaches the edge of the burrow and pulls the signal spider threads: it jumps out of the burrow and bites. At night it moves a short distance from the shelter. It most often hunts beetles and orthoptera, but any insects and smaller spiders can become prey.
At the entrance to the hole
Reproduction
Tarantulas mate in late summer. The male approaches the female's burrow and taps the web with his front legs. The female comes out, and then he begins to stroke her limbs with a slight vibration of his legs. Sometimes the female will still attack the male. When the male manages to calm her down, he enters the hole, where mating takes place.
Entrance to the hole
In the spring, the female lays 200–700 eggs in a cocoon, which she warms in the sun, crawling out to the edge of the burrow and sitting there upside down, with her abdomen with the attached cocoon out. After the small spiderlings hatch (usually in May), she collects them on the upper part of her abdomen and travels, from time to time dropping some of the offspring, thus distributing them. At the same time, the female can swim across small water obstacles.
The female before laying eggs. After laying eggs, the size of the abdomen decreases sharply
Female with cubs, Chelyabinsk region
Tarantulas grow during molting, molting 11 times.
Female with young
Growing at home
South Russian tarantulas are rarely found as pets. It is interesting to watch them while hunting and while arranging their home. It won't be possible to tame.
If the spider notices too intrusive attention, it will bite. At home, South Russian tarantulas live from 1 to 3 years. In warm conditions, Mizgir does not hibernate, which slows down its development.
An ordinary aquarium can also become a home for a tarantula, but it must have good ventilation. The length and width of the container should exceed the paw span by approximately 3 times. A cover is also required - the spider can easily jump up to 20 cm, and can also get out into the corners, entwining them with cobwebs.
You need to pour loose material on the bottom:
- sand;
- vermiculite;
- turf;
- coconut fiber;
- peat.
As an option: on one side of the container - clay and sand in half, on the other - vermiculite and black soil. The thickness of the layer must be at least 40 cm so that the tarantula can dig a full-fledged hole. The poured soil is constantly slightly moistened. You can plant plants and put natural shelters: driftwood or branches. There is a lamp on top (mizgiri like to warm themselves).
Cleaning must be done every 2 months. The spider is removed with a net or lured with food into another container.
You can catch food for your tarantula yourself or buy it at a pet store. These could be cockroaches, crickets, mealworms, moths, and larvae. Young spiders are allowed to be given as many insects as they can consume.
Usually they launch 5-7 cockroaches. If the tarantula does not eat for 5-6 days (this usually happens before molting), then the insects need to be caught. For adults, it is enough to feed them once a week (1-2 crickets or cockroaches). Tarantulas can live without food for about a year, but they must always have access to water.
It should be taken into account: the better the Mizgir feeds, the more often it will shed - the chitinous shell becomes tight as it grows. However, the number of molts is directly proportional to the spider's lifespan. A strict diet will prolong its existence.
At home, females also breed offspring, which spread out after about 3 days (on the 4th day the body of the young is the size of a match head). Then the spider weakens and dies. For active growth of young animals, a stable temperature (30-31˚) and abundant nutrition are required.
Video
South Russian Tarantula (Lycosa Singoriensis) or Mizgir - Housekeeping!
Natural enemies
Tarantulas are preyed upon by parasitoid road wasps (pompylids), which paralyze the spiders and lay eggs on them, from which a larva develops that slowly eats the spider. In particular, these are Anoply Samara (listed in the Red Books of Chuvashia, Ukraine and Moldova) and Cryptochol annularis (listed in the Red Book of Ukraine).
Cryptocheilus alternatus
The eggs are destroyed by various species of ichneumon ichneumon. Young tarantulas are hunted by mole crickets.
In Kazakhstan, tarantulas are eaten by the endemic rodent Selevinia, which, however, is rare.
What's next?
Thus, unexpectedly, I became a tarantula breeder, and this occupation fascinated me very much. In addition to two tarantulas, my arachnaria has another pink spider - Grammostola rosea. But that's a different story.
I will post about new events in the spider’s life here. Subscribe to site news!
Did you like the article? Have questions? Want to inspire the author? Leave a few comments! PS: Don't forget to visit my other website:
The entry was published in the Spiders section. Bookmark the permalink.
Spreading
Distributed in deserts, semi-deserts, steppes and forest-steppes from Austria and Hungary to the Caspian Sea, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, the Russian Far East and Northwestern China. Also lives in Turkey, the Middle East, and Egypt. In Ukraine, it is distributed throughout almost the entire territory, except for the main part of the Carpathians (however, it is found in the Volcanic Massif). Occasionally found further north, especially along river banks with sandy soils.
Danger
All types of tarantulas are poisonous. The poison lies in the glands located in the cephalothorax and opening at the top of the tentacles-mandibles, with which the spider pierces the skin of its prey in order to then suck it out. Tarantulas do not attack humans on their own, but if they are teased, especially females wearing an egg cocoon or having young spiders on them, jump up and can bite a person.
For humans, a tarantula bite is never fatal, but causes swelling and pain in the bitten area. In addition, sometimes the skin turns yellow and remains that way for quite a long time (up to 2 months). There is no reliable information about the fatal outcome for humans from a tarantula bite.
Security
It is included in the Red Books of many constituent entities of Russia, in particular the Moscow, Kaluga, Ryazan, Tula, Sverdlovsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, and the Perm Territory. In Ukraine, it is included in the list of animals subject to protection in the Kyiv region.
In the landscape reserve of national significance Soleny Liman, Ukraine
South Russian tarantula and man
Unlike the Apulian tarantula, the South Russian tarantula is almost not feared in its range. There are even reports from Ukraine of children playing with tarantulas to pass the time.
Bite incidents and toxicity
The spider's chelicerae are large and strong enough to bite through human skin. However, the effect of the poison itself has practically no significant consequences for humans. Redness and swelling occur in the area of the bite wound. Rarely, the bite can also cause a fever. In any case, bites are rare due to the low aggressiveness of the spider. As a rule, in case of danger, the South Russian tarantula prefers to hide and bites only if there is no other way out - for example, a spider has been driven into a corner. Before biting, it straightens up and raises its front pairs of legs.
In a terrifying pose
Difference from tarantula
Tarantulas are often confused with the tarantula spider, so to put an end to this, here are the differences between them:
