Psalmopoeus cambridgei
Another wall is down, another step has been taken - today, I got my first-ever tarantula, my first-ever spider! (The full story is set in small type, skip it if you wish to get to the spider.)
When I was a boy, tarantulas for me were always the epitome of "Exotic Pet Keeping", and the first thing to which my parents answered "Son, when you'll grow up, and live on your own, you can keep venomous animals, but not in this house." At that time, I thought that moment would never come, and that I'll be always stuck with my reptiles. By the time I started serious terraristics half a decade ago, I already knew there was so fucking much more to keeping exotic animals than just tarantulas - and that in fact, tarantula keeping grew into a common (if not downright fashionable) hobby, which altogether made me totally ignorant of spiders of any kind, and turned me towards scorpions and other, more special invertebrates. Ági also put out a rule that I could bring anything to our home except spiders, which was fine by me, as I had no care whatsoever towards these creatures, and did not want to be someone in the huge group of people "who keep spiders because they are cool".
Things started swaying when I told Ági I'd like to bring home a Scolopendra subspinipes, the most total fucking crazy centipede in the world, and she said "I don't care any more even if you bring spiders home, but please don't bring any more centipedes!" This was followed by the effect of Dávid and Csosza offering me baby Poecilotheria Regalis to keep, and my subsequent, indefinite idea of bringing Nephila spiders home from Sankt Poelten. On Easter Monday, I told Ági that I had a craze coming, this time for tarantulas (Nephila idea dumped - maybe someday), and asked her to talk me out of it. Hearing this, her answer was "Oh, all right! I'd love to see you bring home a tarantula, no problem!" O_o So here I went and did.
My choice was a Psalmopoeus cambridgei, or Trinidad Chevron in English.
It is an arboreal species, hailing from the island of Trinidad, and it's an extremely elegant and especially finely-coloured spider. It's beauty lies in it's shape: unlike the common, earth-dwelling species, this spider has a filigrane, small body and long legs with huge fluffy hair on, giving it a manga-like appearance. It's colour is mossy grey with a chocolate brown chevron on the back, and bright reddish spots on the feet. It's temper is defensive-aggressive, with a mild venom. It can't throw it's hair (a common danger with other tarantulas), and it chirps in the night like a cricket, only softer. Mine is one and a half years old (the picture is about life-sized), but it can grow up to 25 cms long.
I know that most of you will think "Oh, gross!", but I'm very glad I got this spider. After having cared for quite a few different species of animals, instead of the venomous, feared, over-scandalised "killer spiders", I can truly see these creatures as they are - sensitive giants that have unique "personalities" and a desire to be left alone and safe. If you give them that, they'll turn into calm and wonderfully-looking pets. (And no, there's no "gross" part, you can't even see its fangs - it looks like an extremely soft and fluffy teddy bear - with eight legs.)
(I dumped my centipede so that I can house the tarantula. Ági's much more at ease without it in the house, and I didn't see much of the devil, anyway. We had a deal that if I'll ever want to acquire a centipede no more dangerous than this one, she won't break a fight. I hope it'll go to a good place, but - knowing Dávid - I'm sure it will.)