Thanks Cerat, great info, sure everybody learned something useful here.:laugh:

Harpactirella lightfooti, quite an interesting species.

From experience I would like to add the following. Harpactirella lightfooti in the wild are often found under rocks as small as bricks. Their burrows are normally long, narrow and in most cases only e few centimetres deep. The bottom of the rock forms the roof of the burrow (in most cases). If you should turn over the rock you will expose the complete burrow.


We have found females with young (or with egg sacks) in burrows 1-2cm deep, and even found some in rock gardens less then a two years after it has been constructed. We have successfully re-introduced quite a lot of them into existing colonies without any problems. They tend to choose their hiding place very quickly and because of the size of the burrow they have to make they settle in within a day or two. We monitored them and found that most of them were still under the same rock a couple of months later. Even found some young in some of the burrows.


IMO, it is safe to release them back into the wild, IF and only if, you are 100% sure that it is a local species and also 100% sure it is his normal habitat. Please ask someone if you are not sure.


Harpactirella lightfooti in captivity is most likely wild caught and not bred in captivity and the chances of it surviving when released are good.

Thank you all so much for all the super good information you gave me:cheer: . I have Copied the most important and useful information in this tread and I have emailed it to my friend. What he does with it is his choice, but I know he will do what the majority thinks.

Thank you again so much for all your help. This sounds like an awesome T!

so just to conclude: can he set them free after he had them for three years? :huh:

It is possible to release them yes.

I can offer him our help in choosing a suitable area and releasing them.

I will send you my fax no in a pm, and your friend can fax me his contact details. I will get in touch with him as soon as I am back in the office next week and arrange a meeting.

Like you said, its his choice what he does with the information. But please ask him to act wisely.

That sounds awesome it seems like you know quite a bit of these species!
Just one question, what will happen to my friend if he comes forward?

The only thing I can say is that there is a difference between someone coming forward and someone who gets caught keeping or dealing in local species.

I can elaborate more in a pm. Please feel free to contact me via pm.