Idiothele

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 nigrofulva), making that species the type for Idiothele. In 1985 Idiothele was temporarily merged back into the related genus Pterinochilus, but Richard Gallon’s 2002 revision of African Harpactirinae restored Idiothele as a valid genus based on distinct morphology and its characteristic trapdoor-building lifestyle. A second species, Idiothele mira, was formally described in 2010 from northeastern South Africa.

Today, Idiothele contains just two recognized species—I. nigrofulva and I. mira—distributed across southern Africa, from South Africa into neighboring countries.