Tarantula Species Information

SPECIES INFORMATION

A Brief Introduction

Family: Theraphosidae

The family Theraphosidae belong to a “primitive” group of spiders known as the infraorder Mygalomorphae, these spiders differ to others in that they present a unique combination of characters that define them. Among others, the more noticeable are fangs that are par-axial, or point downward instead of inward (as seen on spiders such as house spiders, redbacks, wolf spiders, etc), externally visible muscle attachment points on the sternum (these are called sigilla), two pairs of booklungs, instead of one pair and lack of a cribellum (which is a comb like structure other, more highly evolved spiders possess that help to utilize the different silk types they have evolved). Most of the Mygalomorphae have developed a fossorial lifestyle, living on the ground and often, underneath it in burrows. There are some that have evolved an arboreal lifstyle and can be found as high as 40 meters above the ground in trees. None however have attained the ability to live in intricate silken webs, such as we see in orb weaving spiders, they all rely on the ambush method to capture their prey. As a result most are very solid and strong spiders, needing to be able to “outmuscle” their prey, which can often be bigger then they are themselves.

There are currently 20 odd families in the Mygalomorphae, the Theraphosidae being the largest members of the group. As above, a combination of characters found on these spiders defines them as from the family Theraphosidae. The presence of claw tufts (tufts of setae/bristles found each side of the claws on the end of the legs), scopula on legs I-IV (scopula are unique bristles that help the spiders to cling to smooth surfaces, like glass), labial cuspules (small, very stout pegs, rounded at the tips, found on the labium) and elongated lobes the the end of the palpal coxae/maxillae are found in most theraphosids.

The Theraphosidae are known all over the world and as such have been given several common names relevant to the regions in which they are found. In Africa, theraphosids are known as Baboon Spiders, in Asia they are called Earth Tigers, in America and the UK they are known as Tarantulas and in Australia we often hear them called “Barking spiders” or “Whistling spiders”, also Tarantulas.

Subfamily: Selenocosmiinae
All Australian tarantulas are from the subfamily Selenocosmiinae Simon 1889. This subfamily currently contains 13 genera, of which at least 5 are present here. Of those 5 genera, 2 at least are endemic and highly adapted to lifestyle in our arid regions.

Here is the list of Selenocosmiinae fauna (the genera in bold and underlined are found in Australia):

Chilobrachys (Karsch 1891)
Coremiocnemis (Simon 1892)
Haplocosmia (Schmidt & Von Wirth 1996)
Lyrognathus (Pocock 1895)
Orphnaecus (Simon 1892)
Phlogiellus (Pocock 1897)
Poecilotheria (Simon 1885)
Selenobrachys (Schmidt 1999)
Selenocosmia (Ausserer 1871)
Selenotholus (Hogg 1902)
Selenotypus (Pocock 1895)

Yamia (Kishida 1920)
Psalmopoeus (Pocock 1895)

Curiously, the sister group to the Selenocosmiinae are from Africa, so we may see the closest relatives from this subfamily spread more thoughout Africa then any other country.


www.theata.org