Recently I visited a Tarantula festival in Coarsegold California. There was a lady letting people hold this extremely docile and curious tarantula. TheT was all black. I couldn't tell what kind of T it was so I asked. She said it was a California brown tarantula. She didnt know its scientific name.
According to the literature, the Theraphosidae of the Americas north of Mexico consist of Aphonopelma sp. west of the Mississippi river and Brachypelma vagans as an established species in Florida. "The identification of our native tarantula fauna has long been hampered by careless taxonomy", and molecular data suggests that many of the previously recognized names of tarantula species in the United States were synonyms and many species need to be described (Udick et al., 2017).
@Asgiliath exactly! That lady had no clue and I wasn't about to sit there and make her look silly by asking her its scientific name. I figured it was an Aphonopelma, just need its type.
@Entomologist210 clearly you hadnt had your coffee. Lol. I am aware that's why I think people are constantly confused. Name changes are happening every day and Ts go through several coat changes before maturing that people automatically assume it's a different species and name it something else. What they really are naming is the different costs. It is so frustrating.
@8leggedfreak2000 yeah, I also meant with passing the tarantula around. I see that sooo much at expos and pet shops. In fact, the owner of one of the places I go to for feeders does this all the time with his own tarantula (an LP). He already had a customer drop and kill a seemanni and he’s still out there risking his T’s life every day.
@Asgiliath That's what I thought as well, like wth? What if someone freaks out and drops it? Someone asked does it bite? She replied with, "No it doesn't have fangs." Correct me if I'm wrong but Tarantulas cannot survive without it's fangs. That's how they eat! Like I said I didn't want to make her look foolish.
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