# What does 'sp.' mean?



## Kodi (Aug 11, 2012)

Simple as that. I see a lot of "sp." abbreviations in tarantulas names and I have no idea what it means or stands for.


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## captmarga (Aug 11, 2012)

Sp means Species.  Meaning it's known it's an Aphonopelma, but not the exact species (ie A. moderatum) so it's simply marked as Aphonopelma sp.  May be followed by the general area or some common jargon behind it. 

Marga

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## Kodi (Aug 11, 2012)

So if I had an Avicularia genus tarantula, but didnt know the species I would call it Avicularia sp.?


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## Vespula (Aug 11, 2012)

Kodi said:


> So if I had an Avicularia genus tarantula, but didnt know the species I would call it Avicularia sp.?


Exactly! You've got it now!


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## Kodi (Aug 11, 2012)

So why dont the people that dont know the species find out and how would they know the genus before the species?


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## Vespula (Aug 11, 2012)

Kodi said:


> So why dont the people that dont know the species find out and how would they know the genus before the species?


Genus is almost always easier to figure out than species is. And most sellers that don't know the species will sell as "Genus sp." example Aphonopelma sp.

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## captmarga (Aug 11, 2012)

Kodi said:


> So why dont the people that dont know the species find out and how would they know the genus before the species?


Simply because in some cases it's impossible to tell.  Rather than mislabel, it's easier just to list as species... Hopefully the ones that are not 100% ID'd aren't used for breeding.  

Some just don't have a defined slot as yet - the taxonomy is ever-changing.  Someday we'll get to the DNA level and we might know more. 

Marga


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## Kodi (Aug 11, 2012)

Is the Aphonopelma genus more commonly unidentified then most or is that just a random example?


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## Vespula (Aug 11, 2012)

Kodi said:


> Is the Aphonopelma genus more commonly unidentified then most or is that just a random example?


There are a lot of unidentified/ hard to identify species of Aphonopelma, but I was just using it as an example.


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## Matty9557 (Aug 12, 2012)

Also, spp. Is the plural of species, so if you want to list more than one species you would say for example if you have more than one species you would say say Phlogius spp.


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## Kodi (Aug 12, 2012)

So if Im selling 4 different species of Phlogius even if I knew the species of each one I would put Phlogius spp. to label all of them?


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## Matty9557 (Aug 12, 2012)

If you wanted too, or you could say Phlogius spp. "hirsutus, sarina, strenuus".


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## Arachninja (Aug 12, 2012)

Okay so what species is the Aphonopelma sp. (flagstaff orange), since I am not seeing it online any other way than this, could it be a A.  chalcodes, just more orange than the Arizona blond.  I know they said it was an Arizona variety but why no species given anywhere?  Any reasoning behind this, thanks.


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## Vespula (Aug 12, 2012)

Arachninja said:


> Okay so what species is the Aphonopelma sp. (flagstaff orange), since I am not seeing it online any other way than this, could it be a A.  chalcodes, just more orange than the Arizona blond.  I know they said it was an Arizona variety but why no species given anywhere?  Any reasoning behind this, thanks.


Good question. Right now the Aphonopelma genus is a little mixed up, and is undergoing a major revision. I don't know that A. sp. Flagstaff orange is just A. chalcodes, though. Hopefully someone else with more taxonomic experience than me will chime in.


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## Lopez (Aug 12, 2012)

Kodi said:


> So why dont the people that dont know the species find out and how would they know the genus before the species?


Sometimes the spider is known to the ownerr but has not been described in science. 

Like Haplopelma sp."Bach Ma" - it's been known to the world for many years, I have some myself, but nobody has written a description paper on it yet, so for now it can only be called sp."Bach Ma"

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## Archduke (Aug 12, 2012)

Wait till people go into detail of the subspecies.... Anyway, to further the discussion, scientifically, we use the latin name to identify all living things.  As common names are just "nicknames" given by people from different regions.  People in one part of the world may call, for instance, _Nhandu chromatus_, Brazilian white knee, or white knee bird eater.  This is commonly mis-understood from region to region, so by sticking strongly to the scientific name is more accurate.  

The use of binomial names are more common, as it takes alot more research into getting into the sub-species (trinomial naming), and different forms.  It normally takes volumes of paperwork and tonnes of time to study any creature in-depth to churn out the papers needed.

We normally identify the animal, in this case, a Tarantula, by its Genus first, then by its species, then by its sub-species.  So for example, _Avicularia_ (Genus), _versicolor_ (species), then Subspecies, if any.  Sometimes, we do not know exactly which species it belongs to by just looking at it, as some differences are quite subtle. 

One more thing to highlight that is way off the topic now is the way to present the scientific names:  Only the 1st alphabet of the Genus is in caps, the species is not.  Also, the Genus, species and sub-species is all in italics. If the species is named once, its ok to use the 1st letter of the Genus, with a fullstop, as a short form.  For example, _Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens_, can be represented by its short form, C. cyaneopubescens.

I hope this helps the folks here.  Pardon if I do not know the Ts as much as most of the experts here to go into any further depth of the tarantulas, my other hobbies are butterfly watching, hence I know a little bit about taxonomy classifications.

Cheers,
Mark


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## Arachninja (Aug 12, 2012)

Lopez said:


> Sometimes the spider is known to the ownerr but has not been described in science.
> 
> Like Haplopelma sp."Bach Ma" - it's been known to the world for many years, I have some myself, but nobody has written a description paper on it yet, so for now it can only be called sp."Bach Ma"


Ill just know they are one of my favoriates untill the day someone does.


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