Australian Genus Question

[OphidianDelight]

I recently received a Stent's Whistling tarantula. The dealer I got it from had it listed as a Phlogius sp. tarantula and information I had found regarding it's care also listed the genus as Phlogius. When I joined the boards here and looked for the genus to upload my spiderling pics I saw Phlogiellus listed as the genus name. Which is correct?

 

[Sidi]

As far as I know its Phlogius, but there might not be any picture of this species on here, as I believe most people here are not from Australia, and I think getting them overseas is kind of difficult, so maybe no picture thread for them exists here?

Here, http://www.thegreenscorpion.com.au/documents/SpeciesNotes_Stents.pdf

What do you think of your Stents?
How does yours behave? Mine digs and webs a lot, spends a lot of time in its burrow and doesn't feed all that often (compared to my Australian Goliath)

 

[Zoltan]

Phlogius Simon, 1887 and Phlogiellus Pocock, 1897 are two different genera. Stent's whistling spider is supposed to be a Phlogius, but technically and officially Phlogius is a junior synonym of Selenocosmia. Also, according to Platnick, there are no described Phlogiellus species from Australia.

 

[Musicwolf]

Phlogius Simon, 1887 and Phlogiellus Pocock, 1897 are two different genera. Stent's whistling spider is supposed to be a Phlogius, but technically and officially Phlogius is a junior synonym of Selenocosmia. Also, according to Platnick, there are no described Phlogiellus species from Australia.

Excellent information Zoltan . . . not wanting to hijack the thread, but in a somewhat related question - - I have two Phlogius sp. "pq113" - - would it be more accurate to call them Selenocosmia sp. "pq113"?

Also, I heard through the grapevine that someone is preparing a full paper on the Phlogius genera - - is this true?

 

[creepa]

Is it just me or is the junior synonym Phlogius more used for the Australian type Selenocosmia's?

 

[Zoltan]

Currently, whenever you call something Phlogius, that should be Selenocosmia instead, because the two have been synonymised by Robert Raven and Selenocosmia is the older name, and as such, takes precedence. Most people however label the Australian Selenocosmia as Phlogius, and yes, it's true that Phlogius is going to be revalidated by Robert Raven (that's what Steve Nunn told me), but until his findings are published Phlogius "officially" remains a junior synonym of Selenocosmia. If you don't want to change your labels often, I suppose it's fine, albeit "technically" incorrect, to continue calling them Phlogius.

 

[OphidianDelight]

Sidi--Thanks. I trust the dealer I received them from but what threw me was the fact that when I went to upload pictures, there was only the Phlogiellus category available; there were other pictures of Stent's in there as well. I had that green scorpion .pdf bookmarked; it's very informative on their captive care as well as their wild distribution. As far as I know, my Stent's is from the first captive clutch hatched in the US (by Chris Allen). It is very secretive, having built a tube-like web tunnel into the substrate the third day I had it. It hangs out in the mouth of the tunnel and when I open the container, it ducks back into its shelter. Its behavior so far reminds me of Haplopelma lividum specimens I have previously kept.

Zoltan--Thank you for the information. I had read about Selenocosmia tarantulas and had wondered at how similar they were to what was being described as Phlogius; I never made the leap towards realizing that I was reading about the same spiders under different names. I feel like a dunce now for having posted my Stent's pictures in the Phlogiellus genus gallery but upon looking I also do not see a Selenocosmia genus gallery; I suppose this is due to a lack of captive spiders available or Australian members with WC specimens.

Thank you everyone for your input, I have taken much from this and will be able to use it to provide my tarantula with better care.

 

[syndicate]

You can find a photo thread for Phlogius here:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=63827&highlight=phlogius
-Chris

 

[OphidianDelight]

Thank you for that Chris. I have to say it's pretty cool to see the eggsac that my spider came from.

 

[jbm150]

This is a question I've had and was answered by AussieTs in another thread. Thank you for confirming what he said Zoltan, do you know of an expected date that the findings will be published? It seems like this has been in the works for a few years now

 

[Zoltan]

This is a question I've had and was answered by AussieTs in another thread. Thank you for confirming what he said Zoltan, do you know of an expected date that the findings will be published? It seems like this has been in the works for a few years now

No, but I'm patient, "good taxonomy is not a fast science".