In June 2014 I travelled for three weeks in Peru. Peru is an extremely biodiverse country with habitats ranging from the Coastal region in the west to the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.
Peru does not have an exclusively tropical climate; the influence of the Andes and the Humbold Current cause great climatic diversity within the country. The Costa has moderate temperatures, low precipitations, and high humidity, except for its warmer, wetter northern reaches. In the Mountains , rain is frequent during summer, and temperature and humidity diminish with altitude up to the frozen peaks of the Andes.The Jungle area on the western side of the Andes is characterized by heavy rainfall and high temperatures, except for its southernmost part, which has cold winters and seasonal rainfall.

I split up my trip to spend one week at the Tambopata Research Center near Puerto Maldonado and one week in the north of Peru at the Tamshiyacu - Tahuyao Reservation 4 hours from Iquitos. In between I travelled within the andean mountains.
To get to the Tambopata Research Station it takes an 8 hour boat trip from Puerto Maldonado

The Research Center is located close to the Tambopata River and most of the area is flood forest which gets completely flooded during rainy season.

The research being done at the Center is mainly focused on the colonies of Macaws which are located in this area

Near the river it is possible to see the largest rodent of the world - the Capybara. Also Tapirs and Jaguars roam the forest

Different species of monkeys are very common around the Research Center

At night different kinds of tree frogs become active

The poison dart frogs are active at daytime and the best time to find them is just befofre sunset
Ameerega trivittata

young Amereega picta

At nighttime lots of different insects appear in the forest. Here are just two examples Praying mantid

Stick insect

Concerning spiders the Tambopata Research Center recently was in the media because a mysterious structure was discovered on trees . Scientists found out that this strucurue is a single egg of an so far unknown species of spider.
An article of the full story will be published by me soon in one of the following editions Arachne Magazines of the Dearge e.V.
The egg of the " Silkhenge Spider" is at the base of the turret in the middle of the silken fence.

The structure is very small and the spider which hatches from it is even smaller. Here is a size comparison:

The diversity in araneomorph spiders is very high in Peru. Here are some examples of some interesting species. The following one is so well camouflaged that it is almost impossible to see between the moss. The pattern on the abdomen has exactly the same shape as the moss around it

Lots of the orb web spiders are quite colourful

This species we called the "Disco spider"

Others look more like a ladybug

This species had a long and very flexible abdomen. Looking more like a stick insect

At more sunny places it is possible to find Nephila clavipes

As well as Argiope sp.

Another neat family of spiders are Salticidae. They are always curious who is taking pictures of them. This could be a Cobanus sp.

This colourful Agenelidae sp. is very common in the jungles from Peru to Ecuador

Throughout Peru it is possible to see social spiders of the genus Anolesimus within or around the forests

Their communal nets can get very large

By far the largest group in the jungle and most easy to find are members of the Ctenidae
Ancylometes sp.

unknown and quite colourful Ctenid sp.
female ( missing a few legs and being almost dead )

mature male

mature male Phoneutria sp.

different Ctenidae

Unlike all the other free roaming hunting spiders this species was found in a burrow

To find mygalomorph spiders around this part of the jungle it is important to know which parts of the forest get flooded during the rainy season. At the flooded parts it is almost impossible to find any mygalormoph species
Most of the smaller mygalomorph spiders I found were located under or between dead tree logs on the ground. This is a medium sized Diplurid sp.
female

mature male

I was able to find 3 different Theraphosid species in an area of about 100qm just next to the river in an slightly elevated part of the forest. All were found under rotten wood
This is medium sized Theraphosidae sp. with approx. 4 cm BL

Spider in its Habitat

This Cyriocosmus sp. shared the same Habitat. I was also able to find it around Puerto Maldonado in small burrows next to the roads

Burrow of Cyriocosmus sp.

Cyriocosmus sp. in its Habitat

Another dwarf species, reaching around 1,5 cm bodylength

The largest Theraphosid species in this area is a Pamphobeteus sp. which is called " Chicken Spider" by the locals. Sometimes it is possible to find them sharing their burrow with narrow mouthed frogs but unfortunately I didn´t find any frogs around the burrows at the time I was there.

freshly molted female

Habitat of the " Chicken Spider"

Within the jungle it is almost impossible to find arboreal theraphosid spiders because they live high in the canopy. By pictures of mature males I saw from the staff at the research center there must be at least 3 different Avicularia spp. The most common one is more easy to find at plantations or inside villages
Avcicularia sp. " Tambopata "

juvenile

Habitat of Avicualria sp. " Tambopata"

another different unknown arboreal Theraphosid sp.

Within the Andean Mountains the climate is completely different with less rain and much colder temperatures. In winter it can snow and temperatures drop below zero degrees celsius.

Nevertheless it is possible to find Theraphosidae and other arachnids at this high altitude which adopted perfectly to the climate Mostly the spiders are found under rocks. At daytime the sun heats up the rocks and at sunset when temeratures drop the rocks still feel very warm. Maybe this is one reason which makes Theraphosid spiders survive in this habitat
This is a typical place where flipping some rocks reveals lots of arachnids

Latrodectus cf mirabilis

Siccarius sp.

Lycosidae sp.

Opiliones sp.

This is the habitat of Hapalotremus marcapata , a spider living under rocks at an altitude of 3200m. It got newly described in 2018

together with six more Hapalotremus species from South America.

juvenile

female of Hapalotremus marcapata

Video of the Habitat

Habitat of another unknown Theraphosid sp. found at 4200m

Also this species is found under rocks

Spider in its Habitat

At an altitude of 4200 meters a very colourful Hapalotremus sp. lives in this different habitat

Burrow entrance

Hapalotremus sp. juvenile

mature female

Hapalotremus sp.

Another species which can be found at 3200m is this poss. Nemisidae of the genus Acanthogonathus in silk tubes under boulders
Habitat:

moved boulder with silken retreat

female and juvenile

After coming back from the mountains I stayed another week at the Tamshiyacu - Tahuyao Reservation in the north east of Peru. Also here the jungkle gets mostly flooded during the rainy season and therefore no Theraphosid spiders can be found at these places. Even though the Habitat looks pretty much like the one near Puerto Maldonado the species around here are very different.
At a very small elevated area within the forest it is possible to find Ranitomeya flavovittata.

To find them it is necessary to follow their call

Also the tree frogs look different

Praying Mantis

The arachnids at this reserve are also very diverse. With an ultraviolett torch it is possible to find arboreal scorpions like this Tityus sp.

Large Amblypigyd

Some Aranea sp.

Of course I was also able to take pictures of differet Salticidae

This was the largest Salticidae I ever came across... possibly Breda lubormirski

These fishing spiders ( Pisauridae ) which can float ont the water despite their size are common in die flooded areas.

Sparassidae mating

same species with eggsac and a spiderling sitting next to it

This Phoneutria sp. was very common in this area

unknown Ctenid

The mygalomorph spiders also differ from the ones in the south. A small but very colourful one is this Fufius sp. The burrrows are built behind the bark of palm trees

Another very common spider was Ischnothele caudata , a small Diplurid wich builds very silky retreats

mature male with tibial spurs

At some point searching spiders like this Ischnothele can become dangerous. Not because of the spider but because of other animals sharing the same habitat

At night it is possible to find this beautiful Avicularia sp. near buildings and on palm trees . Inside the jungle it is again almost impossible to find females

In June there were still some mature males walking around but mating season was almost over

Even if the females were willing to mate the males didn`t really want to...

Near villages and plantations with more light there was also a terrestrial Tarantula which I also found in northern Ecuador

This species lived in colonies. The burrows were about 50-80 cm deep

Only deep inside the forest, sharing the same habitat with Ranitomeya flavovittata I was able to find Cyriocosmus giganteus  which is the largest Cyriocosmus spp. These tarantulas build deep burrows in the forest and are very fast

Cyriocosmus giganteus in its Habitat

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This juvenile tarantula was under a tree log, possibly an Ami sp.

unknown juvenile Theraphosidae, also found under a tree log