# How many species of birdeaters?



## white_feather (Dec 9, 2008)

Million question man again. I see many T's labelled as birdeaters. How many birdeater species are there?


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## cheetah13mo (Dec 9, 2008)

Most T's, in general are considered bird eaters so I guess you could consider the 850 or so known species of Tarantula, bird eaters.


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## DreadLobster (Dec 9, 2008)

Yeah "birdeater" seems to be kind of a widely used and very generic phrase, and it doesn't have much credible, realistic merit to it. Most tarantulas that are called "birdeaters," although certainly big enough, hungry enough, and powerful enough to eat a bird, probably never get the chance, seeing as they are big bulky terrestrials. I've heard that avics and pokies have much more of a reputation for eating birds. But don't put too much weight in their generic names, just read up on their behavior on this site and you'll get a much better idea of whats what.


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## SNAFU (Dec 9, 2008)

Birdeater is often used as a common name especially when it is not know what T it is.  I own two Phormictopus cancerides and the most used common name is "Haitian Brown". The petshop owner said he bought them as "brown birdeaters" and thats all he knew about them.
My Nhandu chromatus is often called a "white striped birdeater". Somewhere a G. rosea is probably being sold as a "pink back birdeater"...


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## Widowman10 (Dec 9, 2008)

white_feather said:


> How many birdeater species are there?


however many you want.


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## Zoltan (Dec 9, 2008)

If "birdeater" = theraphosid, then...

...the last update of WSC contains 112 genera and 908 species.

Given that there were changes - eg. new genus described - since the last update, the numbers have slightly changed by now.



SNAFU said:


> Birdeater is often used as a common name especially


...especially in countries outside of the US, and for all theraphosids in general. Bird-eating spider, or birdspider (eg. vogelspinnen, madárpók).


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## jefferson (Dec 9, 2008)

i dont understand that necessairly ive never heard of Grammastola roasa eating birds i have heard of king baboons and golith's eating birds but not many other species and wouldnt you want to call them bird eaters if thats auctually on their pallet ?


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## cheetah13mo (Dec 9, 2008)

jefferson said:


> i dont understand that necessairly ive never heard of Grammastola roasa eating birds i have heard of king baboons and golith's eating birds but not many other species and wouldnt you want to call them bird eaters if thats auctually on their pallet ?


Remember, just because you've never seen it or read about it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened. There are stories of large, hairy spiders being discovored that were eating on birds. Now, since this was upon discovery from an explorer, obviously this is not species specific so as to what species was found eating the bird, we can only guess. It's a generic terms that has stuck since the finding of the large spiders and the display of the finding by a picture (drawing) of a large, hairy spider eating a bird that was displayed to let everyone back home know what had been discovored. On top of that, the term birdeater is attached to generic names and are changed very easily so it must not be that important. Avicularia means birdeater so I'd assume that's the species they found but you know that's not the only genus that is sometime referred to as such. I'm just saying don't get very specific with the term, it's VERY loosely thrown around.


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## Moltar (Dec 9, 2008)

Words we hear in the tarantula hobby that are essentially meaningless and the accurate phrases they generally depict:

Birdeater = Large theraphosid spider usually (but not always) from south american jungles. It has nothing to do with their diet. Although people don't usually consider them "birdeaters" Avicularia actually translates to bird eater.

Earth Tiger = Large asian theraphosid spider. Sometimes they're even arboreal. It's like an asian birdeater although sometimes people call asian T's birdeaters too.

Baboon Spider = Generally speaking, an African theraphosid spider. Same thing as birdeater or earth tiger...

Tarantula = Even this word is meaningless, we're just much more familiar with it than the others. The correct term is theraphosid spider. A "real" tarantula could be considered to be the Lycosa tarantella (sp?) which is a large wolf spider from the mediterranean and not a theraphosid at all.


You'll have a hard time getting anywhere with questions or discussions using phrases like bird eater or baboon. Try with species and genus names or at least gain an understanding of the difference between arboreals, terrestrials, burrowers, OW and NW. It will help in your understanding of what's often discussed here.


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## Comatose (Dec 9, 2008)

etown_411 said:


> Words we hear in the tarantula hobby that are essentially meaningless and the accurate phrases they generally depict:
> 
> Birdeater = Large theraphosid spider usually (but not always) from south american jungles. It has nothing to do with their diet. Although people don't usually consider them "birdeaters" Avicularia actually translates to bird eater.
> 
> ...


Right on...I think it's also of note that BE is used as a marketing term...calling something a Bird Eater makes it sound more attractive (menacing/aggressive etc) than just Tarantula.


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## Radamanthys (Dec 9, 2008)

etown_411 said:


> Words we hear in the tarantula hobby that are essentially meaningless and the accurate phrases they generally depict:
> 
> Birdeater = Large theraphosid spider usually (but not always) from south american jungles. It has nothing to do with their diet. Although people don't usually consider them "birdeaters" Avicularia actually translates to bird eater.
> 
> ...


bravo! :clap: 

right on the bullseye etown!


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