New tarantula species discovered in Thailand | Hacker News Reader

New tarantula species discovered in Thailand

phys.org

192 pointswglb59 comments

See also the better known Cobalt Blue and Green Bottle Blue tarantulas, very pretty but not the best beginner pets. They shouldn't be handled and need careful climate.

Other tarantulas are very easy, like Rosehair or Pink Toes. They need little attention, make no noise, are hardy desert climate dwellers, and can be handled. I had a female Rosehair live for 20 years as a beginner.

You surprised me. I never expected tarantulas to be noisy in the first place.

Then you've never met a well-socialized tarantula; they sing and dance all the time. Usually in 6/8.

(This etymology is hilariously absurd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantella )

In 186 BC the tarantella went underground, reappearing under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims.

What the...

I'm sure the historians are trying their best, but I think the chances of them successfully and accurately contextualizing a 2,000-year-old meme dance is approximately zero.

"Ancient Bacchanalian rites"—sure; why not.

Not sure what the problem is. "Ancient" is a no-brainer, and both "Bacchanalian" and "rites" seem perfectly doable for a trained historian.

When you prohibit something popular, people will make up an excuse for doing it while pretending not to. The excuse will be as stupid and obviously nonsensical as they can get away with.

Turns out this is a millenary tradition.

very bad singers, but decent tap dancers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GalkM3KM4s

As this can last for hours at night in the owner's room, is a factor to consider. Here is a spider singing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6b3-wELoOU

Can't find any good video of tarantulas' song on YouTube. I want to see that!

what does "shouldn't" mean with respect to handling, and similarly "can"?

Like they bite, or they're super fragile?

Their (cobalt blue’s) bite is extremely painful! Causes severe muscle cramps and inflammation. They also happen to be very aggressive if you try to handle them, so you’re likely to get bitten.

Both. Some are fast and skittish, and if they launch, even a short fall would be fatal. Description of the bite is similar to a wasp sting; only dangerous if anaphylaxis.

Their bite is much worse than a wasp sting. Unlikely to cause death or serious injury in an adult with no allergies, but the pain can be excruciating and last for many hours, and lesser symptoms for days. We usually do not prescribe muscle relaxers or opiates for a wasp sting.

They bite, they are super fragile, and some have urticating hairs that release freely if feel threatened and you don't want in your skin or floating around your room.

Real question…when you say “can be handled” is it because they’re defanged or because they are socialized and likely won’t bite?

If just socialized, are they just socialized to their owner or to any human?

Not aggressive and their venom isn't harmful

> The secret behind the vivid blue coloration of our tarantula lies not in the presence of blue pigments, but rather in the unique structure of their hair, which incorporates nanostructures that manipulate light to create this striking blue appearance

Cool!

It’s actually surprisingly common. For instance, butterflies and peacocks also use this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_coloration

(In fact, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that only a handful of blue pigments exist in nature; the vast majority of blue animals and plants use structural colouration instead. Can’t recall where I saw it, though.)

If I'm not mistaken, thin-film anodization one more example of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing

- "Anodic films can also be used for several cosmetic effects, either with thick porous coatings that can absorb dyes or with thin transparent coatings that add reflected light wave interference effects. [...] The colour [sic] formed is dependent on the thickness of the oxide (which is determined by the anodizing voltage); it is caused by the interference of light reflecting off the oxide surface with light travelling through it and reflecting off the underlying metal surface."

There's one more example in metallurgy I don't remember the name of: where you can get metals to spontaneously form color gradients by heating them in a specific way. Like, there's a thermal gradient, and that somehow translates to an oxidation-thickness gradient, which makes a rainbow. (?)

There is work currently being done to turn this idea into a usable paint : https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf7207

Something can be both common and amazing ?

I find the blue sky one of these common yet amazingly beautiful phenomena.

No one said otherwise. One can add context without invalidating the statement they responded to.

Ok then, fair enough.

Structural color is really amazing. Same thing on the wings of Christmas beetles that gives them a blue green oil slick look.

I'm waiting for a paint company to come out with this for house painting. 1 coat for life.

that's what Iridigm displays use (acquired by Qualcomm in 2004):

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2004/09/qualcomm-acqu...

And now apparently owned by... Apple!

https://appleinsider.com/articles/15/12/15/apple-has-taken-o...

what is the difference between that and what pigment does?

If you ground a structural color material down into a dust, it would no longer produce the same color effects anymore. By contrast, pigments and dyes have their absorption at the molecular level and would only lose their effect if you modified their chemical bonds.

With structural color, the substances themselves do not have this spectral absorption characteristic. Instead, very specific configurations are needed to produce different effects. Imagine microscopic arrays of prisms and mirrors.

Also, structural colorization is often very angle-dependent. The iridescence of flowers, feathers, etc. comes from this characteristic. At different angles of incidence of light reflecting to an observer, different colors become visible. Pigments do not do this.

Also, I think there may be differences in usage of these terms between physicists, chemists, and biologists. While writing this, I also realize I am not sure if the terms become ambiguous for relativelt inert, microscopic crystals. From a physics standpoint, I think the crystals may exhibit structural color and pigment effects. From a practical standpoint, they might behave a little more like a pigment in that you could have what seems a fine dust and mix it into paint. But, if you dissolved it to separate the crystals back into free molecules, it would then only exhibit the pigment effects.

Apparently, structural color is also a lot more vivid (in the paint example, it reflects back almost 100% of the light, vs. 50% for pigment).

If it reflects back 100% of the incident light, it wouldn't have a blue appearance, would it?

I believe it changes the wavelength of the reflected light, producing the observed color.

From what I understand, with structural colors the structure is causing certain wavelengths to preferentially reflect or transmit, or behaves as a diffraction grating to split the white light. What you're describing sounds like fluorescence.

The difference between two lamps, one red the other blue, making one purple light and purple paint.

The design or setup makes one purple the other is purple.

Reminds me of when Lexus also used nanostructures to create their "structural blue"

https://newsroom.lexus.eu/natures-brillance-captured---new-l...

It sounds like this species has been previously known to hobbyists under the name "Chilobrachys electric blue"

I remember seeing this species in YouTube videos from at least a few years ago[0]. It's incredible to me how there's still so much we don't know about our world!

[0] https://youtu.be/vDU2sR62v5E?si=eYf7g-ucm3sYSwEx

No, that's a separate species?

Edit: apparently not. It's surprising as Well as enraging

Not sure why you find it enraging, it's quite common for new species to be well known in the hobby before they're officially named

It's because I denounce the exotic pet trade

Offtopic - The man in the video is very agile on his feet. The trek looks dangerous and a single misstep can end up in a disaster. Respects for people who take such risks to study the forest ecosystem.

I've done similiar paths back in Thailand. It's not so uncommon.

Ah yes, I guessed it'd be a Chilobrachys.

As a matter of fact, the first tarantula I ever encountered, in the wild, was also a chilobrachys species.

Previous news about electric blue spiders: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37349839

> Blue is one of the rarest colors to appear in nature, which makes blue coloration in animals particularly fascinating.

Now hold on just a minute. The sky. The ocean. Glaciers. Even human eyes. Blue is so common "in nature" that the Earth, viewed from Mars, looks like a blue glass marble. https://www.universetoday.com/14446/photos-of-earth-from-mar...

Blue coloration in plants and animals is admittedly uncommon, but it's far from unusual. Animals tend to cluster around earth-toned colorways, and bright reds and greens are just as uncommon as blue.

Don’t you think given the context of the article, they were clearly talking about blue coloration in animals, or plants and animals?

> The sky. The ocean. Glaciers. Human eyes

All structural. Blue eyes are depigmented, so the iris is basically "transparent" if I remember correctly. Thus they change with the light. The effect is more striking in green eyes that can turn grey.

It should say that blue pigment is rare, not blue color. The premise of structural colors being somehow less real than pigment colors is a bit weird, but for some reason common.

"This species was previously found on the commercial tarantula market..."

Oupsie.

I don’t think this is unusual. Hobby collectors can often have collective knowledge that rivals researchers. This is especially true for less popular/well funded species like insects, fish, etc .

In case of tarantulas, there is active black/grey market trading and smuggling them, so that probably explains why white-hat scientists have hard time following.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/science/spiders-tarantula...

Most of the google search results for Chilobrachys sp. Electric Blue Tarantula are online stores. Some of them claim to have live specimens in stock.

The going price in the UK appears to be about 15-20 GBP.

I really enjoy knowing that all these critters exist somewhere, and also that I have a nice big ocean in between me and them

Henceforth it shall be known as the Thairantula.

I'll show myself out.

Spiderpunk 2077

And it is nearly Spider Worship Season here.

Hacker News?

“Tron Spider”

Why not ?

It's a really cool spider! And I say this as someone that is pretty terrified of all spiders.

Yeah, it looks cool but still, it's gonna be a no from me, dawg

Yes - color hack.

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