Arachnids on stamps

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Abkhazia* (1999a)

Date of issue: 1999
Name of issue: Rainforest
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/9

*Abkhazia is a disputed territory. The majority of the world's governments consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory . Therefore, their stamps are not valid for international postage.

The stamp in the lower left part of the sheet contains a scorpion, a spider and also a centipede. The funniest thing happened the other day. I brought my kids to their daycare and I discovered that they have that poster on one of the walls. Interestingly, all the animals are "identified" on the poster, so I am now able to pinpoint what is what!

The scorpion is labeled as Pandinus imperator, the spider as Avicularia avicularia and the centipede as Scolopendra gigantea. It is kind of funny since P. imperator is from Africa and the later two from South America.

Michel#: none

order: Araneae
family: Theraphosidae
Avicularia avicularia (Linnaeus, 1758)

order: Scorpiones
family: Scorpionidae
Pandinus imperator (C. L. Koch, 1841)

Souvenir sheet:

Abkhazia* - Spiders

Date of issue: 1999
Name of issue: Rainforest
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/9

Michel#: none
order: Araneae
family: Theraphosidae
Avicularia avicularia (Linnaeus, 1758)

For more information on this series, click HERE

Abkhazia* - Scorpions

Date of issue: 1999
Name of issue: Rainforest
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 1/9

Michel#: none
order: Scorpiones
family: Scorpionidae
Pandinus imperator (C. L. Koch, 1841)

For more information on this series, click HERE

Abkhazia* - Myriapoda

Date of issue: 1999
Name of issue: Rainforest
Number of myriapod related stamps in issue: 1/9

Michel#: none
subphylum: Myriapoda
family: Scolopendridae
Scolopendra gigantea Linnaeus, 1758

For more information on this series, click HERE

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Abkhazia* (1999b)

Date of issue: 1999
Number of arachnid related stamps in issue: 6/12

*Abkhazia is a disputed territory. The majority of the world's governments consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia's territory. Therefore, their stamps are not valid for international postage. There are several other local issues from former Soviet territories, visit my entries about Batumi, Khakassia & Chuvashia.

I had this issue for a while, but I just discovered while examining the scans closely that the species names are written at the buttom of the stamps.
Looks like most of the spiders artworks on this series are taken out of Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) from Ernst Haekel. I have used that plate's identification for the species of the spiders on the stamps (most only have the genus, except Eris tricolor, that is note on that Ernst Haekel work).

This series is also available as imperforate.