Poecilotheria regalis, Indian Ornamental a closer look

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:04]Hello guys, welcome back to the beasty room. Um, we're going to carry on with um some of the videos. We've been doing some sort of in-depth videos, basically just videos really to have a decent look at some of the spiders that we keep in the hobby. And um we've done a few of the more common beginner species. So today I thought we would have a look at one that's a little bit further up the ladder should we say. Um and that is the peacearia regardless. Now we're going to start with a regardless. We got a number of piece area here in the beasty room and um we we will have a look at all of them, but I figured we would start with the regalis because it's probably the most commonly kept of the peace area.

[00:01:00]Uh they do get rather large.

[00:01:03]They are classed as medically significant, but I think out of all of them, these are possibly um one of the best for the for the first time keeper of peace. If you've never had any of the pokies, we call them pokies for short.

[00:01:29]Um, if you've not had one, let me just get that out of the way. If you've not had one before, then the regardless is an absolutely first rate introduction to this genus of spiders.

[00:01:42]Now, they all come from um India um and they're also known as the Indian ornamental and they are just absolutely exquisite.

[00:01:55]Now, they all carry the same sort of thing. So the whole genus, they've all got this sort of um structure that they are. So they're an aroreal spider. So they live up in the trees. They spend their whole time up there. That being said, if you've got um youngsters, slings, and sometimes juvies, they will in fact burrow down. And we've even had the odd adult that will burrow down as well. But generally speaking, once they start to grow up, they uh they come out of their shell a little bit and they they start to live and have that aroreal lifestyle.

[00:02:34]What we're going to do, I'm going to pick this up and move this down here a little bit.

[00:02:37]>> I'm zoomed in.

[00:02:39]>> Oh, you okay? Are you see you struggling a little there?

[00:02:42]>> I'm coming out now then.

[00:02:43]>> So, as we can see these um she's actually sitting there at the moment. Um and she's she's relatively relaxed.

[00:02:52]She's sort of keeping herself to herself. Um, you okay there?

[00:03:00]>> Yeah, I think so. If >> I can move this over this way a little bit. What it is, we got some boxes down in the front of the thing there. Um, a new little plan that we're playing on with some boxes for some higher um, humidity loving species.

[00:03:16]But anyway, that's another day.

[00:03:20]So, as you can see here now, this girl here, she is probably she's cracking on for like 7 in. Now, these guys do get up to sort of 7 8 in. They are a large spider.

[00:03:35]They're a very fast spider as well when they want to be. They can take off at an enormous rate. Uh for a big spider, they they really do move very very fast. Now, as you can see there now, she's she's just sort of settling in. What we can do, we can get her to open up in a minute and we'll have a little look.

[00:03:54]Maybe we what we'll try and do is have actually have a look at the underside of her because on the front of these guys, they have a beautiful yellow on the underside of the um of the front legs. We might just see it's quite it's quite a difficult thing to actually see but we get in there.

[00:04:16]Shall I try and lift a leg?

[00:04:20]I do just about make that yellow out there now.

[00:04:27]And they use this so when they're in their threat display, they can actually rear up and they will lift their front legs just like all other spiders do when they're in a threat display.

[00:04:41]And that will show off that yellow.

[00:04:44]There you go. Look at that.

[00:04:46]Isn't that absolutely lovely?

[00:04:49]Really, really pretty. I'm not going to push her too much. She's doing really well, actually.

[00:04:56]So, as we were saying, these guys come from India.

[00:05:00]So, in terms of temperature, they're going to like, you know, some nice warmth. They really do appreciate the warmth.

[00:05:08]What we're doing, we're just going to get her to move forward a little bit.

[00:05:15]You can see how if we're just gentle with her, she's not too bad. There you go.

[00:05:25]So, we're liking with these guys, we like to keep these up in the high 70s to low 80s and they'll do absolutely fine.

[00:05:33]They do enjoy a humidity, a good humidity and um so bearing in mind in India although it gets very very hot and dry there when they have the rains and everything these guys are just absolutely swamped out. It's real heavy rains. These are up in the trees in holes and things like that. And the rainy season is one of the things that triggers their um their breeding cycle.

[00:06:03]>> You like their feet.

[00:06:05]>> I like their feet.

[00:06:06]>> They got amazing feet. As of all the aroreal spiders, they really have. They got really good cool amazing feet. Now um so obviously we get different um climates in India. So you get from the rainy season where it's absolutely monsoon, very very high humidity. Um it's almost like a claustrophobic humidity. It's very high. And then in the um in the peak of their summer times, it's incredibly hot and dry. So these guys have quite a wide range. Uh that is helpful for new beginners especially with these um with this type of spider because because of that wide range it means that you can have a little bit of um you know little bit of leeway in how you're actually keeping them. So you you won't really keep these guys too damp or too dry. It's you know they've got a very very broad range. So, it's absolutely perfect.

[00:07:12]And as we can see here, temperament wise, the regardless is one of the calmer ones. I always put them around about the middle. I think one of the ones that's probably maybe a little bit more calmer than these is maybe the Miranda. They tend to be very, very dosile. Um, but then the Miranda and these are probably the commonest um calmst out of all of them.

[00:07:38]What I'm going to do, we're going to try and get a little bit of footage here on the phone.

[00:07:48]So, the piece of regardless or the Indian ornamental, an ideal introduction into the piece of genus and they are absolutely gorgeous. As we said earlier on, this girl is around about seven cracking on for 8 in.

[00:08:10]In terms of breeding, these are pretty easy to breed as well. They are not at all difficult. Um, and they take very little um in terms of actually getting them to produce a sack.

[00:08:27]Compared to some of the other piece of theia, they can be a little bit more tricky, but these guys generally are very, very easy.

[00:08:36]Check her out.

[00:08:42]So, in terms of breeding, we found with these that um in the past when we've paired them up, we normally get to around about it's a weird thing, but we normally get to around about six months and then they produce a sack. Um, and it's I don't think we've don't think we've ever had a dud sack from one of these.

[00:09:05]They are generally really really good.

[00:09:08]Now, we do have to be careful when breeding them because the um the females, they will take a male given half a chance. And the males have to be very, very fast. And you'll find that when they when they pair, if you check out some of our older videos, you'll see the males literally dive in, pair, and then they run for it. They're gone. So, they're um they tend to be sort of like jump in and stab merchants. And we found that all the pieces area are all the same. They're very, very quick to pair.

[00:09:44]And sometimes you don't actually feel like you've had an insemination. It just doesn't seem like it's been there. But when you watch it back on slow motion, you can you'll see there's always an insemination there. They really are very very good.

[00:09:58]>> Yellow band as well, don't we?

[00:10:00]>> They have the yellow band.

[00:10:02]>> Yes. On these you can um I think the only way we would do that is if we box her up because we won't see underneath. But with these they have a nice cream band along the the on the underside of the abdomen at the top.

[00:10:18]There's a cream band that runs through them. So, you can always tell that you have a regardless. This is the only one of the pieces of the area that have this band. None of the others have it. So, it's a real easy way to um to tell whether you've got a regardless or not because they have they they are very very similar. You got these the Mirandas, which we will take a look at in another video, and also the Tigramelli. Again, another one. They very similar in coloration, but there is quite a difference in the markings on the legs and um and sometimes on the abdomen as well. So, it's they really are quite tricky to tell them apart and there there is a little bit of a knack to it and um every now and again we fall short and we think we got one thing and we find out we got something else. So, it's um you've got to be really really careful especially when it comes to breeding these. You need to make sure and what we do here if we're ever in doubt we can we have a couple of people that we can um send photo through so photos through and uh we can get a distinctive identification on them because it's not always not always obvious um unless you have the regardless because they do have that band. So it makes it very simple very easy. Now, in terms of food, um, an adult female like this will take on anything and they have a very good strong appetite. They really do. So, um, >> maybe make her move.

[00:11:50]>> We can try. She's, I must admit, I thought >> on the more >> I thought she would have sort of been on the move a little bit, but she's, um, her color might pop on the wood.

[00:12:00]>> She's uh, we can get her onto the wood.

[00:12:06]So, you got be you got to be very very careful because they go from literally just walking very very slowly to all of a sudden teleporting.

[00:12:17]There she is. Going to go and hide underneath the log.

[00:12:23]So, we're just going to move her around.

[00:12:26]If you do this at home, be aware these are one of them spiders. Although she's big. If you look at that, you can some she see the yellow legs there. be aware that although she's a big big spider, you can um they are very very fast and they're very capable of running up the paintbrush.

[00:12:49]You try and stay in with her facing you and you might just get them yellow legs.

[00:12:56]See if she'll walk down. There she comes.

[00:13:01]As you see, they got a very, very steady walking pace.

[00:13:09]We don't want you to hide.

[00:13:12]There we go.

[00:13:18]Look at that.

[00:13:20]What we'll do now is we'll stop her here.

[00:13:25]That was me touching the wood.

[00:13:32]As you can see there, she's very, very relaxed. She's not at all um nervous.

[00:13:43]And what happens now when we do this, you'll see she just puts one foot to the paintbrush.

[00:13:50]She will be able to. They are so sensitive. She can probably feel my heartbeat through this paintbrush.

[00:13:59]There we go. Look at them legs.

[00:14:03]Now, they do go into what we call the pokey stance when they're when they're fully relaxed and they're hiding. And it means they put the front two legs out the front and the back two legs out the back. And it creates almost like a a pencil of a spider.

[00:14:19]>> What do they do with the middle ones?

[00:14:21]>> There is no middle ones. There's two and two.

[00:14:23]>> A sport.

[00:14:26]>> Got six legs, baby.

[00:14:28]>> What are you talking about? Eight legs.

[00:14:30]What do you Oh my dear me. What are you talking about?

[00:14:32]>> A petty pouch.

[00:14:34]>> No. No.

[00:14:36]>> I'm joking.

[00:14:38]>> Oh, dear me.

[00:14:39]>> You stay calm.

[00:14:41]>> Yeah.

[00:14:42]This is why we don't let camera ladies speak very often. She gets all tongue tied. There we go. Look at that.

[00:14:52]So, as you can see there, we can manipulate her nice and gently, but just be wary because they can move very, very quickly and she's very capable of running up this paintbrush.

[00:15:08]Now, in terms of venom, these guys are what we call medically significant.

[00:15:15]So, that basically means you really don't want to get bitten by one because they do have a strong venom. They're not likely to want to bite you.

[00:15:28]All these spiders, it doesn't matter what they are, they all want to escape.

[00:15:33]none of them really want to um you know to have a confrontation with you. So nine times out of 10 when someone gets bitten by a spider it's because the spider has either fallen onto them while they're doing something. It might literally run out the enclosure, run up their arm or whatever. And then if the spider is in a nervous way, then it might just react and bite.

[00:16:04]And as we can see here, she's showing no. Even when we stop her from going to where she wants to go, she's still showing nice and calm behavior.

[00:16:21]We're just going to turn around.

[00:16:24]There we go.

[00:16:30]And you see there, there is absolutely no aggression. She's got no intention of wanting to bite us whatsoever.

[00:16:39]Now, if we was to try and pick her up and grab her or anything like that, then that is when you like the chances are you're going to get bitten. You'll see many people freehandling some of these spiders on the internet.

[00:16:55]Please don't do it. You know, it's really not worth it. And eventually these people do eventually end up getting bitten. So it's really not worth the risk. And should you get bitten by a medically significant spider, it doesn't stop with a bite, you might end up still suffering, pain, and uh discomfort from a bite many years after the event.

[00:17:24]Venom works in a very very strange way with us humans and it can it can be have very longlasting effects. So please don't be tempted to um pick them up if you find yourself in a position where you do a rehhouse and for argument sake this spider runs out and ends up you know sitting on my chest or on my shoulder or on my arm or something. The trick is is to stay very very calm. Whatever you do, do not let someone put a catch cup over the top of that spider when it's on you because it may well just bite bite you. You know, the fear of that catch cup coming down, it might be enough to make that spider want to bite. So, do not ever put a catch cup on on yourself. you know, don't do it. If you're going to do it, you're better off trying to make your spider walk to somewhere else, you know.

[00:18:28]So, if it's on your arm, put your arm on a flat surface and let it walk off. That is the safest way to do it. And then look at recapturing your spider.

[00:18:38]It's as simple as that.

[00:18:39]>> What if it's on your back?

[00:18:41]>> If it's on your back, you know, you might be able to take your shirt off. I think you've seen me do this once many many moons ago with a broops. That broops ran circuits all around me. Um and then eventually we had to take my shirt off to actually get it back. And um it was just the easiest way to do it.

[00:19:02]You know, it's it's it's just that simple. If you're on your own, just take your shirt off very gently, very carefully. You can do it. And uh and that's the safest way of dealing with them. Just don't ever because what happens is is if you if if it's on you and you go like that with your catch cup and your spider freaks out often or not we see when the catch cup comes down the spider freaks out. So if you catch it on you on here like this there's a good chance it's going to freak out and it may well just bite me straight off. So be very very careful. Just you know get it to walk off in a different direction and catch it later on. much. Ain't it funny? As soon as you pick up the phone to get a photograph, she walks.

[00:19:54]So then, as we were saying, as an introduction to the genus, I personally think that Regardless is probably one of the best, if not the best one to actually take that chance and do that.

[00:20:09]It really is. She has got a She I'm sure she's watching me because every time I get near, she moves.

[00:20:31]There we go.

[00:20:34]So, there we have it. The piece of the area regardless. And she's done it. Look at that. She's managed to get under there.

[00:20:42]>> Too slow.

[00:20:42]>> I was a bit too slow. That is for sure.

[00:20:46]Right. Then what we're going to do, we're going to pick this up. We're going to have one last look at her on there.

[00:20:55]There she is.

[00:21:03]You can see how she's settling down.

[00:21:04]She's almost in that pokey stance, but not quite. If she was feeling under pressure, she would literally stretch her legs out and go into that pose. The fact that she's sitting quite openly like this suggests to me that she is not under any pressure at all. She's feeling very, very calm.

[00:21:33]Here you go. Look, look. That's She's starting to lay down a little bit now.

[00:21:44]Absolutely beautiful.

[00:21:48]Right, I'll try and get one more picture in here.

[00:21:56]That's it. Always a good idea to get some get your photographs while you're doing things like this cuz you never know when you get another chance.

[00:22:04]Right then. Well, that is our piece of Theia. Regardless, the Indian ornamental and I think you'll agree they really are a special spider. They're very, very nice and as we were saying, an ideal introduction. So, if you're in the mid-range, if you're an absolute beginner, I would probably wait a little while.

[00:22:26]These are very quick. They can be quite a handful. But if you're in the intermediate stage and you've had a little bit of exper experience with some of the other spiders, some of the other fast spiders and some of the aroreals, even things like your aix and stuff like that, if you start off with them where they're nice and gentle and you get used to that sort of speed because they can dart around just as quick as these guys.

[00:22:49]So get used to that speed and the the of handling because handling aroreal spiders is very different to handling terrestrial spiders. Um it's different again when we start with um the fossoral spiders, they all, you know, although they're all spiders, they all behave and live in very different ways. And this means that we have to change the way that we deal with them um in order to stay safe and not only for us but for our spider as well. So bear that in mind. Uh but if you're intermediate and you've had um aix and things like that, definitely try a regardless the Indian ornamental. Absolutely first class introduction to these spiders.

[00:23:35]Right. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. We will be having a look at some of the others in this genus as well. And remember, don't forget, be calm, be gentle, and love your spoiler. And we'll see you all soon, guys.