Hysterocrates

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 such as Pocock and Strand added several now-iconic species (including H. gigas and H. crassipes), while more recent taxonomic work has transferred additional species into Hysterocrates from related genera like Phoneyusa. oday, the World Spider Catalog recognizes around 18 valid species plus one subspecies, all restricted to tropical regions of West and Central Africa.