India

Cilantica is a very new genus of Indian tarantulas, formally described in 2024 by arachnologist Zeeshan A. Mirza during a major taxonomic revision of the Western Ghats subfamily Thrigmopoeinae  (family Theraphosidae ). The work re-examined museum specimens and fresh material from across the Western Ghats and found that several well-known “earth tiger” tarantulas formed a distinct lineage that warranted their own genus. The genus name Cilantica is a Latinized form of the Tamil

Haplocosmia  is a small genus of Old World tarantulas in the subfamily Selenocosmiinae, first described by Schmidt & von Wirth in 1996. These spiders are native to the southern slopes of the Himalayas and surrounding regions, where they inhabit cool, montane forests in Nepal, northern India, and Tibet. The genus currently contains three recognized species: Haplocosmia himalayana  – from the Indian Himalayas Haplocosmia nepalensis  – the type species from Nepal Haplocosmia she

Haploclastus is a small genus of Old World tarantulas endemic to India, placed in the subfamily Thrigmopoeinae. It was erected in 1892 by the French arachnologist Eugène Simon, with Haploclastus cervinus  as the type species. These are largely fossorial or semi-arboreal earth-tiger style spiders, known for deep burrows, strong webbing and potent venom rather than urticating hairs. Taxonomic history 1890s–1930s – Original core of the genus After Simon’s description of H. cervi

Lyrognathus is a small genus of Old World tarantulas from South and Southeast Asia, first described by British arachnologist Reginald Innes Pocock in 1895. He based the genus on the species Lyrognathus crotalus from India, which is still the type species today. Over the next century, a few more species were added, including L. saltator from India and L. robustus from Malaysia. Some names were later cleaned up: for example, Lyrognathus pugnax  and L. liewi  are now considered

Poecilotheria  is a genus of arboreal tarantulas native to India and Sri Lanka, famous for their striking “ornamental” patterns and speed. Early European naturalists first encountered these spiders in Sri Lanka in the 18th century; in 1734, Dutch zoologist Albertus Seba illustrated one as Aranea maxima ceilonica  (“the big spider from Ceylon”). As arachnology developed, the same spiders were shuffled through several genera. In 1804, Pierre André Latreille described them as My

Selenocosmiinae is an Old World tarantula subfamily (family Theraphosidae) found from India across Southeast Asia to New Guinea and Australia. It was first established by Eugène Simon in 1889 based on a group of burrowing mygalomorphs that shared distinctive stridulatory (“hissing”) organs: a lyra of stiff hairs on the maxillae and corresponding strikers on the chelicerae. Early work in the late 19th and early 20th century described many of the core genera we still recognize