Neoholothele incei
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Administratorem danych osobowych jest PHU Krystian Solga. Przetwarzamy je w celu przesłania odpowiedzi na zapytanie. Więcej informacji dotyczących przetwarzania danych osobowych znajduje się w polityce prywatności.
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Description
Neoholothele incei Tarantula - Miniature Jewel of Trinidad, Master Web Builder Without Urticating Hairs
Neoholothele incei (historically classified as Holothele incei, commonly known as the Trinidad Olive Tarantula) is one of the most spectacular New World dwarf tarantulas, combining a metallic carapace sheen with extraordinary silk engineering. If you are looking for an engaging and trouble-free dwarf tarantula to keep, Neoholothele incei provides unmatched observational satisfaction. Completely lacking urticating hairs and possessing very mild venom, it guarantees comfortable, safe keeping with zero risk of contact allergies or irritating itching. Within just a few weeks of settling in, it can transform an entire nano terrarium into a dense, multi-tiered labyrinth of subterranean silk tunnels.
- Zero urticating hairs: Complete absence of irritating urticating setae on the abdomen eliminates itchy skin, eye irritation, and airborne bristles during routine maintenance.
- Master silk architect (Grade A+ heavy webber): Constructs monumental structures of dense white webbing across the entire volume of the enclosure, delivering a captivating observational display.
- Compact nano size: Adult females reach only 3.5-4.5 cm (1.4-1.8 in) in body length (with a leg span of 7.0-8.5 cm / 2.8-3.3 in), making this species an ideal resident for elegant 20 cm (8 in) cube nano terrariums.
- Skittish sprinter with mild venom: When startled, it darts into its retreat at lightning speed; an accidental bite is medically insignificant and comparable to a honeybee sting.
Neoholothele incei - Care Guide: Requirements, Temperature, and Humidity
| Feature | Care Parameter |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Neoholothele incei (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898) |
| Origin | Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela (lowland tropical rainforests and scrubland) |
| Ecotype / Lifestyle | Terrestrial / opportunistic burrower, heavy webber |
| Adult size | Females: 3.5-4.5 cm (1.4-1.8 in) body length (7.0-8.5 cm / 2.8-3.3 in leg span) | Males: 2.0-2.8 cm (0.8-1.1 in) body length (5.5-6.5 cm / 2.2-2.6 in leg span) |
| Urticating hairs | Completely absent (safe for allergy sufferers) |
| Venom potency | Mild (comparable to a honeybee sting) |
| Daytime temperature | 24-28°C (75-82°F) (optimal: 25-27°C (77-81°F)) |
| Nighttime temperature | 21-23°C (70-73°F) (natural nocturnal drop stimulating activity) |
| Relative humidity | 70-80% (consistent moisture in lower substrate layers - wet corner technique) |
| Enclosure dimensions | 20 x 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 x 8 in) (with cross-ventilation and front guillotine sliding door) |
| Lifespan | Females: 7-10 years (documented up to 12 years) | Males: 1.5-2.5 years |
| Difficulty level | Confident beginner / intermediate |
Choosing a Variant and First Steps with Your Tarantula
At the Ants Invasion store, we offer healthy, captive-bred specimens from proven breeding lines. Depending on the selected life stage, development and initial care after delivery proceed as follows:
- Spiderlings / Slings (L1-L3): Young spiderlings sporting steel-gray coloration with a dark carapace. We dispatch them in secure, ventilated vials filled with moist coconut coir. After unpacking, keep the container at room temperature (20-22°C (68-72°F)) in a shaded spot for 24 hours. Do not heat the spiderling with a heat mat for the first 24 hours to avoid compounding transport stress. Offer their first meal after a full 24 hours - micro runner roach nymphs or pre-killed mealworm pieces measuring 2-3 mm (0.08-0.12 in) are ideal.
- Juveniles (L4-L6): Tarantulas with a leg span of 3-5 cm (1.2-2.0 in), showing a fully developed, high-contrast tiger pattern on the abdomen and a metallic bronze carapace sheen. Following 24 hours of acclimatization in their rearing enclosure (e.g. a small plastic tub), they will eagerly hunt active Turkestan roach nymphs measuring 4-7 mm (0.16-0.28 in).
- Subadults and Adults: Fully grown females or maturing males ready to inhabit their permanent vivarium. Once introduced into a 20x20x20 cm (8x8x8 in) enclosure, the tarantula takes 24-48 hours to explore the territory and select an anchor site for its burrow. The first dense silk sheets and tunnels will emerge over the very next few nights.
Buying an L4-L5 specimen (juvenile) on this product card: you receive a well-established, independent tarantula with a leg span of 3-5 cm (1.2-2.0 in) that does not require micro-feeders and readily hunts runner roach nymphs or small mealworms, featuring a fully developed tiger-striped abdomen.
What Enclosure to Choose for Neoholothele incei?
For an adult Neoholothele incei, the ideal choice is a glass nano terrarium measuring 20x20x20 cm (8x8x8 in) with efficient cross-ventilation and a front guillotine sliding door. The enclosure requires 5-8 cm (2-3 in) of moisture-retentive substrate and numerous silk anchor points, maintaining relative humidity at 70-80% via the wet corner technique.
The enclosure setup should combine terrestrial floor area with vertical hardscape structures. The key to success is establishing a sturdy scaffolding for silk engineering: an angled slab or tube of cork bark, clumps of Sphagnum moss, and dried twigs enable the tarantula to instantly weave a three-dimensional labyrinth of tunnels and retreats. Utilizing a guillotine sliding door safeguards intricate webbing ceilings and burrow entrances against destruction during routine servicing.
This species is exceptionally sensitive to desiccation within its burrow microclimate. A substrate blend of coconut fiber and peat moss should be hydrated selectively in one corner once a week, creating a natural vertical and horizontal humidity gradient. A shallow water bowl may be nestled into the silk scaffolding, or you can lightly mist a patch of webbing once or twice weekly, allowing the tarantula to drink suspended water droplets.
What to Feed Neoholothele incei and Feeding Schedule
The staple diet of Neoholothele incei consists of live feeder insects sized between 50% and 100% of the tarantula's abdomen length. Known for its voracious appetite and lightning-fast ambush strikes, this species pounces with deadly accuracy the moment it registers vibrations along its silk tripwires.
Diet should be adapted to the developmental stage:
- L1-L2 Instars: Feed every 2-3 days with flightless fruit flies (Drosophila hydei) or tiny Turkestan cockroach nymphs (1.5-3 mm (0.06-0.12 in)). For the smallest spiderlings, freshly pre-killed, punctured feeders work exceptionally well.
- L3-L5 Instars: Feed every 4-5 days with medium runner roach nymphs or pinhead crickets measuring 4-7 mm (0.16-0.28 in).
- Juveniles and Adults: Feed every 7-10 days with subadult Turkestan cockroaches, crickets, or young Dubia roach nymphs. Adult females building reproductive fat reserves can be fed every 10-14 days.
The tarantula routinely deposits leftover prey boluses on the outer periphery of its web complex, where they should be removed promptly using long tweezers to prevent mold and mite proliferation.
Can Neoholothele incei Be Kept Communally?
Neoholothele incei exhibits a degree of conspecific tolerance that is exceptionally uncommon among New World tarantulas and can be successfully maintained in communal setups. However, this is facultative coexistence rather than true eusocial cooperation. The spiders do not engage in cooperative brood care, but they peacefully tolerate cage mates sharing an expansive communal silk megastructure, provided abundant food and territory are supplied.
Managing a stable communal colony requires strict adherence to 5 core rules:
- Single egg sac origin: The colony must be formed exclusively from clutchmates co-housed since L1-L2 instars. Introducing an unrelated specimen immediately triggers territorial aggression.
- Uniform specimen size: All individuals must molt at a comparable rate. Any tarantula that outgrows the rest of the group by more than 30% must be separated promptly to prevent it from viewing smaller siblings as prey.
- Continuous food surplus: Offer small feeder insects 2-3 times per week at double the spider headcount to completely eliminate foraging competition.
- Extensive maze of hides and web anchor points: The communal terrarium (e.g. 30x20x20 cm (12x8x8 in) for 5-6 spiders) must be densely furnished with cork bark tubes and branches, giving each individual space for its own retreat.
- Awareness of natural attrition: Even under optimal conditions, occasional cannibalism during molting can reduce initial colony numbers by 10-20% by the time adulthood is reached.
Planning a communal project? Order 3 or 5 clutchmates from the same egg sac to minimize territorial friction and create a breathtaking, interconnected silk megastructure.
Common Husbandry Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Substrate desiccation and dried-out burrow: As a small tropical tarantula, N. incei quickly loses moisture through its cuticle. Keep the lower substrate layer consistently moist in one corner and maintain humidity around 70-80%.
- Enclosures that are too tall without scaffolding: A fall from a height exceeding 15-20 cm (6-8 in) risks a fatal rupture of the fragile abdomen. Use cube enclosures no taller than 20 cm (8 in) and fill the space with angled cork slabs.
- Leaving live feeder insects during molting: Webbing up burrow entrances and refusing food signal the onset of premolt. Leaving a live cricket or hard mealworm in the terrarium can fatally injure a soft, vulnerable tarantula mid-molt.
- Attempting to handle the spider: N. incei is an extraordinarily fast, skittish, and nervous animal. Carry out all terrarium maintenance exclusively using long terrarium tweezers (25-30 cm (10-12 in)).
Click to expand: Taxonomic revision, synapomorphies, and species history
The species was formally described in 1898 by Frederick Octavius Pickard-Cambridge as Hapalopus incei based on material collected on the island of Trinidad by Dr. Walter Ince. In 1997, Jan-Peter Rudloff transferred the taxon to the genus Holothele. A breakthrough cladistic revision conducted in 2015 by José Paulo Leite Guadanucci and Dirk Weinmann demonstrated the polyphyly of the traditional Ischnocolinae group and erected the new genus Neoholothele, designating Neoholothele incei as the type species within the subfamily Schismatothelinae.
Key generic synapomorphies include a male tibial apophysis with a retrolateral branch whose apex is distinctly wider than its base and bears two apical spines, paired slender female spermathecae with constricted necks, and a cracked fourth tarsus (cracked tarsus IV). Furthermore, research by Sherwood, Guadanucci, and Gabriel (2021/2022) finally resolved a century-old mix-up in the type series at the Natural History Museum in London, where female specimens originally cataloged as paralectotypes of H. incei were proven to belong to Spinosatibiapalpus trinitatis.
Click to expand: Chronobiological revolution - bimodal activity rhythm (2025 Study)
Pioneering chronobiological research led by Prof. Giuliano and Moore, published in 2025 in the prestigious Journal of Ethology ("Circadian rhythms of locomotor activity in the New World tarantula Neoholothele incei"), debunked the widespread belief that tarantulas are strictly nocturnal creatures.
High-precision phototelemetric monitoring demonstrated that Neoholothele incei exhibits unique bimodal diel activity. The spiders display two distinct peaks of locomotor arousal across each 24-hour cycle: a morning diurnal peak during the photophase and a dominant scotophase peak at night. Moreover, their free-running circadian rhythm (FRP) demonstrates remarkable plasticity within a 21-25 hour range. This scientific breakthrough explains why the Trinidad Olive tarantula regularly ventures out of its silk retreat during daylight hours, hunts in ambient light, and provides a fascinating observational display around the clock.
Click to expand: Genetics of the 'Gold' color morph and the double clutch phenomenon
Two established phenotypes occur within the species: the wild classic form (Classic) with a dark olive carapace and bold tiger striping, and the 'Gold' morph, which is an autosomal recessive mutation (g/g). In the gold form, eumelanin synthesis is suppressed, resulting in uniform brassy-golden coloration across the entire body. In accordance with Mendelian inheritance, crossing two heterozygous individuals (Classic het. Gold) yields 25% homozygous Gold, 50% carriers (het.), and 25% Classic offspring. The variant offered on this card is the wild classic form (Classic). You can also find the vibrant gold color morph Neoholothele incei 'Gold' in our store.
An extraordinary reproductive characteristic of female N. incei is the double clutch phenomenon. Thanks to specialized spermathecal anatomy, females can store viable sperm and produce a second fertile egg sac (yielding 30-60 spiderlings) 4-8 weeks after the first cocoon (50-120 eggs) has been pulled, without requiring any additional mating or undergoing a molt.
Click to expand: Is Neoholothele incei venom dangerous to humans?
The venom of this species is toxicologically classified as mild and medically insignificant. Any bite symptoms are limited to localized mechanical puncture pain, minor redness, and slight swelling that resolves within 1-3 hours. The effects are fully comparable to a single honeybee sting. Furthermore, the complete absence of urticating hairs eliminates any risk of skin irritation or airborne respiratory discomfort.
Click to expand: Does this tarantula require CITES permits or registration?
No. Neoholothele incei is not covered by the Washington Convention (CITES) or European Union wildlife trade regulations. Purchasing and keeping this dwarf tarantula is 100% legal and requires no registration with local authorities or captive-breeding certificates.
Click to expand: Why has the spider sealed its burrow and stopped eating?
Sealing the tunnel entrance with a dense, impenetrable curtain of silk combined with food refusal is the natural and definitive signal of an approaching molt (premolt stage). During this period, the tarantula constructs a secure molting chamber. Do not tear down the webbing, do not offer food, and do not disturb the animal. Simply ensure steady moisture in one substrate corner and allow the molting process to finish undisturbed.
Click to expand: How do I safely clean the enclosure of such a fast tarantula?
During maintenance tasks (removing food remains, topping up moisture), maintaining calm, deliberate motions and using long tweezers (25-30 cm (10-12 in)) is key. Before opening the door, verify the spider's location. In 99% of cases, a startled N. incei will immediately retreat into the deepest chamber of its silk web. Never make sudden movements or blow into the enclosure.
Ready to observe a captivating subterranean world of silk? Add Neoholothele incei to your cart, pair it with a 20x20x20 cm (8x8x8 in) enclosure and cork bark, and recreate a slice of Trinidad's rainforest in your home!
Shipping and Live Arrival Guarantee
Every tarantula is professionally packaged for transit, and during colder weather, we include a HeatPack warming pad in the parcel. We guarantee live arrival. Live animal orders are dispatched from Monday to Thursday to ensure safe arrival before the weekend.
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