Bio piracy: AP's Gooty spider for sale online in US

By Udumula Sudhakar Reddy

The Gooty sapphire ornamental tree spider of the State is for saleon-line. The spider a native of Gooty in Anantapur district is now sold in US, UK andother European countries.Forest department officials said that the spider was stolen from the State and being soldas pets abroad.AP Bio Diversity Board member Secretary Mr V B Ramana Murthy said ,"several on-linepet shopping sites are selling the Gooty spiders and other tarantulas. The metallic blueornamental tree spider they claimed is from Gooty India. It is sold in US extensively.This is nothing but biotheft. We are trying to identify the companies selling them,"The males of the spider are more beautiful with more metallic blue color than females.They feed on moths, cricket insect, grasshoppers.The spiders are kept at pets in the enclosures resembling aquariums without water butwith damp conditions."the spiders are bred there. Adult male spiders are introduced in the females enclosureafter feeding them properly. otherwise the female species will eat away the male. TheGooty spider is difficult to find and very expensive in those markets. As per ourinformation that pet dealers from US imported these specimens form a breeder inEurope. They were taken here from Gooty," said the official of AP Forest department.Dr R Hampaiah of AP Bio Diversity Board said ,"Gooty spider is only the tip of theiceberg. Several of our plants and animals were taken away and being sold. The petmarkets of South East Asia are flooded with our star tortoises,"