Tarantulas

Euathlus is a genus of South American tarantulas first established by Anton Ausserer in 1875, with Euathlus truculentus  designated as the type species. These are small- to medium-sized terrestrial tarantulas, mostly from temperate, often higher-elevation habitats along the Andes in Chile and Argentina, with a few species reaching northern Chile and southern Peru. The group has a famously tangled taxonomic history. Over the last century various Chilean and Mexican species wer

Ephebopus  is a small genus of New World tarantulas from northeastern South America, first established by French arachnologist Eugène Simon in 1892, with Mygale murina  Walckenaer, 1837 reclassified as Ephebopus murinus  and designated as the type species. Over the years, the group has puzzled taxonomists: its relationships within Theraphosidae have been repeatedly revised, and the genus has been shuffled among multiple subfamilies as new morphological and cladistic data emer

Grammostola is a South American tarantula genus established by French arachnologist Eugène Louis Simon in 1892. Today, around 20 recognized species are known from temperate and subtropical regions of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, including several of the hobby’s most iconic “beginner” tarantulas such as G. rosea , G. pulchra , and G. pulchripes . In the late 19th century, many South American tarantulas were being described and shuffled between gene

Guyruita is a small genus of South American tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae, first established in 2007 by J. P. L. Guadanucci and colleagues. The genus was created to accommodate two new Brazilian species, Guyruita cerrado  (the type species) and G. atlantica , and to receive Holothele waikoshiemi  from Venezuela, which was transferred into the new genus based on shared anatomical features. Since its description, Guyruita has gradually expanded as additional species ha

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

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

Homoeomma is a genus of small South American tarantulas first described by Austrian arachnologist Anton Ausserer in 1871. The name comes from Greek and roughly means “similar eye,” referring to the similar size of the spider’s median eyes. Today the genus is placed in the family Theraphosidae and is best known in the hobby for compact, burrowing species from Chile and Brazil. Ausserer originally created Homoeomma for a Brazilian tarantula then known as Mygale versicolor . Lat

Harpactira  is a genus of African tarantulas in the subfamily Harpactirinae, native mainly to South Africa with one species also occurring in Namibia. The group is one of the earliest theraphosids described from Africa. The spider we now know as Harpactira atra  was originally described in 1832 by Pierre André Latreille as Mygale atra  from the Cape of Good Hope region. In 1871, Austrian arachnologist Anton Ausserer  established the new genus Harpactira  and transferred Mygal

Holothele is a small New World tarantula genus first established by Ferdinand Karsch in 1879 for the species Holothele recta  from northern South America. At the time it was actually placed among the “curtain-web spiders” (family Dipluridae), and only later, in 1980, was it formally moved into the tarantula family Theraphosidae. Through the 20th century, Holothele became a “catch-all” for many small, ground-dwelling tarantulas from Central and South America and the Caribbean.

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

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

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

Hapalopus  is a genus of dwarf tarantulas first described in 1875 by Anton Ausserer. Originally a “catch-all” for several tiny, colorful Neotropical species, the group has been heavily revised as spider taxonomy has improved. Modern studies of the original type specimen and related species have tightened the definition of the genus and moved many mis-assigned species into new or better-defined genera. Today, Hapalopus  contains just a handful of small terrestrial tarantulas f

Iridopelma  is a small genus of New World arboreal tarantulas endemic to Brazil. It was erected in 1901 by British arachnologist Reginald Innes Pocock, who separated these delicate, tree-dwelling spiders from the catch-all “bird spider” groupings that dominated 19th-century taxonomy. For much of the 20th century Iridopelma was poorly known, represented mainly by the type species Iridopelma hirsutum  and a handful of scattered records from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. Ad

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

Kochiana is a small genus of New World tarantulas in the family Theraphosidae, native to Brazil’s Atlantic forest and surrounding regions. The story of the genus starts in the early 1840s, when Carl Ludwig Koch described a tiny Brazilian theraphosid as Mygale brunnipes  in his classic work Die Arachniden . For more than a century the species remained poorly known and was even treated as “indeterminable” (a nomen dubium) in later catalogs. In 2008, Brazilian arachnologists Car

This genus includes one accepted species, the L. sazimai. Required reading is an article by Galleti-Lima et al. 2023. Lasiocyano sazimai Common name Brazilian Blue Tarantula (also known as Sazima’s Tarantula / Iridescent Blue Tarantula). Origin Endemic to eastern Brazil, particularly the highland areas of Bahia and Minas Gerais (Chapada Diamantina / Espinhaço range). Lifestyle New World terrestrial, opportunistic/facultative burrower. In captivity it prefers a terrestrial s

Lasiodora is a New World tarantula genus first described in 1850 by German arachnologist Ludwig Carl Christian Koch. Originally, a large number of big, ground-dwelling Brazilian tarantulas were grouped under Lasiodora as European naturalists explored the Atlantic coast of Brazil in the 19th century. The type species, Lasiodora klugi , was initially described in 1841 (as Mygale klugii ) before being placed in the new genus. Over time, many spiders once called “Lasiodora” were

Lasiodorides  is a small genus of New World tarantulas from the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. It was formally established in 1997 by German arachnologists Günter Schmidt and B. Bischoff, who created the genus for their newly described species Lasiodorides polycuspulatus  and designated it as the type species. Shortly afterward, an earlier Peruvian species described in 1996 as Oligoxystre striatum  was transferred into the new genus as Lasiodorides striatus , giving the group its

Lampropelma  is a small genus of arboreal tarantulas in the subfamily Ornithoctoninae, native to the Indonesian island region of Southeast Asia. It was erected in 1892 by French arachnologist Eugène Simon for Lampropelma nigerrimum  from Sulawesi, and has always been a geographically restricted, island-endemic group within the family Theraphosidae. For many years, several striking Asian arboreal tarantulas – including the well-known “Singapore Blue” – were placed in Lampropel