Pelinobius

Pelinobius is a small, Old World tarantula genus in the family Theraphosidae. It was first established by German arachnologist Ferdinand Karsch in 1885, when he described Pelinobius muticus from East Africa.

In 1900, British arachnologist Reginald Innes Pocock described a very similar spider as Citharischius crawshayi in a brand-new genus, Citharischius. For decades, many hobbyists and some authors used this name for what we now call the king baboon tarantula.

The picture became even more confusing in 1985, when Robert Raven temporarily synonymized Pelinobius with the African genus Phoneyusa, following earlier suggestions by Pocock that they might be closely related. Modern work finally sorted out the tangle. In 2010, arachnologist R. C. Gallon reviewed these African theraphosids and re-validated Pelinobius as a distinct genus, treating Citharischius as a junior synonym and folding Citharischius crawshayi plus several Phoneyusa species into Pelinobius muticus.

Today, Pelinobius is recognized as a monotypic genus: it contains only one species, Pelinobius muticus, the king baboon tarantula, distributed in the dry savannas and scrublands of Kenya, Tanzania, and neighboring parts of East Africa.