Plus another smaller hall packed to the gunnels with all manner of thing both creepy and crawly. I had set out on a mission to buy nothing more than another giant African land snail (rest in peace Snaily - at least 10 years old!) and some more hissing cockroaches. I was then presented with all manner of amazing mantises:
Tempting spiders:
And lots of other awesome critters:
I was accompanied by Mrs Jim and some other not-so spider-loving friends who I think enjoyed themselves, especially considering at least one of them has a pathological dislike of arachnids. The pub lunch afterwards probably helped. It was good fun seeing who else was there too: from respectable middle-aged people, to very friendly enthusiasts, to spider-geeks and also Birmingham's entire goth and mullet-wearing population. It was unusual to feel like one of the most normal people in a room for a change.
The main mission for the day for Mrs Jim was to acquire a little Avicularia versicolor, a stunning arboreal tarantula. Unsurprisingly, given the immense selection there, we easily found our spider and named her Darcy. You can't see her in the photo because she's tiny but she is incredibly beautiful. As a juvenile they have a metallic dark blue colouring, which you can make out as she sits on my hand: 
But once they are full grown they turn into an even more colourful creature, with a bright green carapace and pink abdomen, both with a metallic sheen. Being arboreal, they are much better climbers than the ground-dwelling species that are most popular as pets. They are also a little more tricky to keep, but I reckon that with our experience little Darcy will do just fine. In fact, she has already successfully moulted once since we've had her which is a good sign. Juveniles moult on a much more regular basis than adults as they are growing rapidly, and take a lot less time to harden after each moult. 48 hours after moulting, Darcy had already eaten a cricket that was nearly as big as she is. Arboreal tarantulas are also a lot more fleet-footed than their ground-dwelling counterparts, and we've already noticed this when we had her out for her photo shoot, the only thing that slowed her down were my hairy arms! We'll definitely be heading to the BTS annual exhibition 2012, and can recommend it for spider-fans and unusual haircut lovers alike.
