Hi all

Just something I thought you lovely people might find interesting.

The past long weekend, Me and my girlfriend went to Pietersburg(polokwane) to visit some family and friends.

The saturday we went to a friend for a swim. He lives on a big plot or a small farm lol. Anyway as I was walking around admiring the view from thier backyard, something cought my eye.

At the bottom of a tree close to me I saw a spider, on closer inspection I belived it to be a OBT. Wierd right. I cought the spider(o and yes it took me some time and allot of running) to confirm that it is infact a obt. Got it into an old container my friend had in the garage.

I asked my friend if there are any t keapers in the area and he didnt know so i asked him to find out if there are ny t keapers in the area. He said he wil get back to me.

Now I have pics on the T that I will try and load asap. The pics are of him in his container, as I dont go swimming with my phone or my camera, but from what you will be able to see I am shure you will agree with me. That it is a obt.

On monday just before we left I let the fellow go on his way.
O and he was a mature male.

Very interesting indeed!

I have sent the link of this post to Patrick Gildenhuys to find out if P. murinus have been spotted in this area before and what his comments are.

Thanks for sharing Hagar!

Thanks Ceno, it will be interesting to hear what he will have to say.

If its an obt, it will be an escapee. They are not found this south. My guess is it might be something else though. Post some pics so we can try id.

If this does end up being an obt and anyone ever asks why we have a permit system for obt's, im going to lose my mind.

Here's Patrick's reply:

Pterinochilus murinus has not ever been found on the South African side of
the border. I'll never say that its impossible, rather, highly unlikely.
Particularly if its the red/orange form of P.murinus, known by most people
as OBT. Of course, it could also be a possibility that a captive(escaped)
specimen survived till maturity in the Polokwane climate. That is not highly
unlikely at all. In fact, its a lot more likely than a natural population of
orange Pterinochilus murinus inhabiting an area in South Africa.

Pterinochilus lugardi has apparently been found in South Africa, and thats
another possibility.

The scenario that I find most likely, is that its a mature male Idiothele
nigrofulva. They were originally described as Pterinochilus, and it could
easily have been mistaken for a P.murinus MM by whoever found it.

The only way to tell for sure, would be by seeing a picture of it.
If you have a photograph, please forward it to me, and I'll see if I can
identify it for you/him.