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- Aug 29, 2002
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Recently, we received from Christian Hirsch a preserved adult male and two preserved subadult females that he had received as “Avicularia hirschii” from Ecuador. It apparently came from the same reference collection as the specimen from Michał Królicki, which we had at the time for identification (see HERE).
The material from Christian Hirsch is identical to the material from Michał Królicki and therefore fully matches the details and illustrations in the expertise on our website (see HERE) and the illustrations and details in the revision of the subfamily Aviculariinae by Fukushima & Bertani (2017). So it is obviously belongs also to Avicularia lynnae Fukushima & Bertani 2017. The following pics show the most important characters of the male and the spermatheca of the larger subadult female of Christian Hirsch's material. The shape of the bulb and especially the length of the embolus, as well as the structure of the strong setae on tibia 1 ventral/apical, apparently do not vary much within the species and differ significantly from those of the male A. hirschii! Thus, these characters not only appear to be distinctly different from Avicularia hirschii, but can actually be used as distinguishing features of both species due to their apparently low variation. There is no doubt that the taxa A. hirschii and A. lynnae are very closely related to each other. However, they are not distinguishable based on the shape of the spermatheca alone.
It is very likely that all Avicularia hirschii imported or smuggled from Ecuador in recent years are actually Avicularia lynnae.
Literature:
Fukushima, C. S. & Bertani, R. (2017). Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae) with description of three new aviculariine genera. ZooKeys 659: 1-185, Suppl. 1-5
The material from Christian Hirsch is identical to the material from Michał Królicki and therefore fully matches the details and illustrations in the expertise on our website (see HERE) and the illustrations and details in the revision of the subfamily Aviculariinae by Fukushima & Bertani (2017). So it is obviously belongs also to Avicularia lynnae Fukushima & Bertani 2017. The following pics show the most important characters of the male and the spermatheca of the larger subadult female of Christian Hirsch's material. The shape of the bulb and especially the length of the embolus, as well as the structure of the strong setae on tibia 1 ventral/apical, apparently do not vary much within the species and differ significantly from those of the male A. hirschii! Thus, these characters not only appear to be distinctly different from Avicularia hirschii, but can actually be used as distinguishing features of both species due to their apparently low variation. There is no doubt that the taxa A. hirschii and A. lynnae are very closely related to each other. However, they are not distinguishable based on the shape of the spermatheca alone.
It is very likely that all Avicularia hirschii imported or smuggled from Ecuador in recent years are actually Avicularia lynnae.
Literature:
Fukushima, C. S. & Bertani, R. (2017). Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae) with description of three new aviculariine genera. ZooKeys 659: 1-185, Suppl. 1-5
