Description
Scientific Name: Ceratogyrus meridionalis
Common Names: Grey Mustard Baboon | Zimbabwe Grey Baboon
Another of Africa’s beautiful and feisty baboon spiders. The Zimbabwe Grey or Grey Mustard Baboon Spider is a lovely mix of grey, black and gold tones, making it quite a striking baboon spider to see in person.
They are obligate burrowers, prefering to stay below ground and out of view until dark. Their grey fluffy tarsi/feet can be seen at the mouth of their burrows as they lay in wait for any prey insects that get too close. Feeding them sparingly will ensure you get to see them more often and providing a little less substrate for burrowing will also see them improvise by using heavy webbing to create their lairs.
As an old world African baboon spider, they display every bit of their feisty behaviour as expected. A disturbance will immediately cause a retreat in to it’s burrow and continued pestering will be met with a threat pose and of course eventually, a painful bite. As always, be cautious when working with Old World species.
Ceratogyrus is listed as protected in South Africa and may not be owned, collected or transported by South African hobbyists.