Amazonius

Dominik Alexander
Nov 26
2 min read

Amazonius is a relatively new genus of arboreal tarantulas in the subfamily Psalmopoeinae, formally established by Yeimy Cifuentes and Rogério Bertani in 2022. Their revision and cladistic analysis of the related genera Tapinauchenius and Psalmopoeus revealed a distinct Amazonian lineage that warranted separation into its own genus.

Several species now placed in Amazonius have a longer and somewhat tangled taxonomic history. The type species, Amazonius elenae, was originally described in 1994 as Tapinauchenius elenae, and A. burgessi was also first described under Tapinauchenius before being reassigned. Amazonius germani had been misidentified within Tapinauchenius since the mid-1990s until Cifuentes & Bertani clarified its identity and created the current combination.

Today, the World Spider Catalog recognizes four species in the genus: A. elenae, A. burgessi, A. germani, and A. giovaninii. These spiders are distributed across lowland Amazonian rainforest in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and French Guiana, where they live as fast, agile tree-dwellers.

All species in this genus are from the Amazon region.