Ephebopus

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 emerged.

Originally known mainly from the “Skeleton Tarantula,” E. murinus, the genus expanded as additional species were described from rainforest regions of Brazil and French Guiana. These include E. uatuman (emerald skeleton tarantula), formally described in 1992, and E. cyanognathus (blue fang tarantula), added in 2000, along with less commonly kept species such as E. fossor and E. rufescens. Today, Ephebopus is best known in the hobby for its striking leg patterning and unique defensive adaptation: unlike most New World tarantulas, its urticating hairs are located on the palps rather than the abdomen, a feature that makes this lineage one of the more distinctive branches of the tarantula family tree.