Avicularia huriana

[TRowe]

Hey folks,

I just received a 1" A. huriana s'ling from Chris @ Krazy 8's (very pleased) and am surprised by how much they resemble A. urticans, especially at this size. For those of you in the know, what are the taxonomic differences between the two species? I read somewhere that A. huriana was perhaps incorrectly described, and may actually be A. urticans. Also, any side-by-side pictures of adults and/or spiderlings of both species that could be posted would be incredibly interesting.

Thanks!!!

Tim

 

[mick]

Hi,

I just bred both species and yes they do look exactly the same. It's funny you wrote this as I was talking to Bruce last night and that exact subject was mentioned. The adults don't look the same though.Hope this helps,
Mick

Hey folks,

I just received a 1" A. huriana s'ling from Chris @ Krazy 8's (very pleased) and am surprised by how much they resemble A. urticans, especially at this size. For those of you in the know, what are the taxonomic differences between the two species? I read somewhere that A. huriana was perhaps incorrectly described, and may actually be A. urticans. Also, any side-by-side pictures of adults and/or spiderlings of both species that could be posted would be incredibly interesting.

Thanks!!!

Tim

 

[kellygirl]

Avicularia taxonomy is something like a local joke... a lot of people say about 3/4 of the described Avic species are Avicularia avicularia.

I don't know much about taxonomy but I have some seen some pictures of Avicularia huriana that showed EXTREMELY fuzzy specimens. I think the fuzziness factor is supposed to be one of the distinguishing features of A. huriana but I'm sure there are some people who don't even consider them to be a legitimate species.

Now... Avicularia urticans? I know there will be some European folks who will come on here and say all types of things about urticans but basically it comes down to this: there is a "pet trade" urticans, there is a "real" urticans, and there is something that is sold as the "pet trade" urticans but is something else altogether... and then there are probably all types of hybrids floating around as well.

I think your best bet in figuring out what your critter is going to look like is finding out what the parents looked like (assuming they are captive-bred, not just captive-raised). If you could get a hold of a picture of the father before he matured and a picture of the mature mother, you might have an idea of what to expect.

The problem is that Avicularia are constantly hybridized in captivity and in the wild. The lines between many species are so fuzzy that unintentional hybridizing is probably happening more often than not.

Good luck sorting things out with yours.

-Kelly

 

[TRowe]

Thanks to both of you for your input. Avics are great, except for the fact that you can rarely be 100% positive about what you have. It's funny, though, I never thought about them crossbreeding in the wild, but why not?

Thanks again!

Tim