Africa

Ceratogyrus is a genus of African tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae, better known to keepers as the horned baboon spiders. They’re named for the distinctive foveal “horn” on the carapace that many, though not all, species develop, along with a characteristic pale sub-abdominal band. Today the genus contains 10 accepted species distributed across the drier savanna and scrub habitats of southern Africa, from Angola and Namibia through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi

Heterothele  is a small African genus of old-world tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae. It was established by German arachnologist Ferdinand Karsch in 1879, with Heterothele honesta  from the Loango coast (modern-day Cabinda, Angola) designated as the type species. Through the late 19th and 20th centuries, additional species were described from across central and eastern Africa, including the well-known H. gabonensis  and several Congolese and Tanzanian species. Some early

Hysterocrates is a genus of African “baboon” tarantulas established by French arachnologist Eugène Simon in 1892 to accommodate a group of large, heavily built mygalomorph spiders from West and Central Africa. The type species, Hysterocrates greshoffi , was originally described a year earlier in a different genus ( Phoneyusa greshoffi ) before being reassigned and used to define Hysterocrates as we know it today. Over the late 19th and early 20th centuries, arachnologists suc

Heteroscodra is a small genus of arboreal tarantulas from West and Central Africa, currently placed in the family Theraphosidae and subfamily Stromatopelminae. It was established by British arachnologist Reginald Innes Pocock around 1900, with Heteroscodra maculata  designated as the type species. Pocock based the genus on a female spider from West Africa that had been kept in the London Zoo’s insect house under the name Scodra calceata  (now Stromatopelma calceatum ). Noting

Idiothele is a small genus of African baboon tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae, best known in the hobby for the “Blue-Foot Baboon” Idiothele mira . These spiders are unusual among African tarantulas because they line their burrows with silk and cap the entrance with a true trapdoor, a behavior otherwise unknown in the continent’s theraphosids. The genus was erected in 1919 by South African arachnologist John Hewitt to house Pterinochilus nigrofulvus  (now Idiothele nigro

There is one species in this genus, M. balfouri. Monocentropus balfouri Common name:  Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula (often shortened to Socotra Blue Baboon) Origin:  Endemic to Socotra Island, off the coast of Yemen in the Arabian Sea. Lifestyle:  Old World, terrestrial / opportunistic burrower that creates heavy webbing and often forms complex tunnel systems. One of the few tarantulas known to thrive in true communal groups under the right conditions. Adult size:  Med

Pterinochilus is a small African genus of baboon spiders in the tarantula family Theraphosidae, first established in 1897 by British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock. Today around ten species are recognized, all native to sub-Saharan Africa, with the best-known member in the hobby being Pterinochilus murinus , the famous “Orange Baboon Tarantula” or OBT. Early scientific history Pre-genus groundwork (1870s–1890s) Before the genus Pterinochilus  was even named, African baboon s

Pelinobius  is a small, Old World tarantula genus in the family Theraphosidae. It was first established by German arachnologist Ferdinand Karsch in 1885 , when he described Pelinobius muticus  from East Africa. In 1900 , British arachnologist Reginald Innes Pocock  described a very similar spider as Citharischius crawshayi  in a brand-new genus, Citharischius . For decades, many hobbyists and some authors used this name for what we now call the king baboon tarantula. The pict

Stromatopelma is a small genus of African arboreal tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae, established by German arachnologist Ferdinand Karsch in 1881. He based the genus on an older species described as Aranea calceata  by Fabricius in 1793, which is now known as Stromatopelma calceatum  and serves as the type species. These spiders are native to parts of West and Central Africa, with different species recorded from countries such as Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guin