Barbados Black Hole Spider? Give me a break.

[lucanidae]

Check this out:

<EDIT>

Okay, I usually don't do things like this, but this is getting a little ridiculous. I know common names are not 'regulated' per se, but they generally come from some standard usage. A book, a paper, a field guide, a pamphlet, or extended everyday usage before a species is officially named are ordinary places where common names originate.

Kukulcania hibernalis is known as the Southern House Spider. Everywhere. That is its only common name.

Not to mention, Kukulcania hibernalis is "widely distributed in the southern USA, and extends (thanks to humans) to South America." That's from the new Spiders of North America book. Hardly a specialty to Barbados.

The only ever use of "Barbados Black Hole" for this species is in ads and a flickr account from this one person.

You can't (well, I guess you can...but you shouldn't!) create a common name like that just to drum up sales. Sure, Southern House Spider probably dosen't have big name draw. That dosen't mean you get to make something up, especially if what you make up really isn't all that applicable.

Also, seeing as how these spider are extremely common all over the southern US and Florida...why would anyone pay to have them imported from Barbados?

But a common name really has to be used in a paper, book, or some other guide that lots of people have access to. Or, it's just common in and of itself. Southern House Spider is the already in place common name for this species. You can't just make up your own common name for everything, think of how even more ridiculous the common name scheme would be then!

 

[buthus]

Agree ...but...
In defense <edit> ...think of those quoted names like a title or headline ...not so much a common name but its uncommon name.
Its common to see dealers and hobbyists sellin/tradin hibernalis from the south east but its not so common to see any available that are from someplace else. Maybe not so much with something so hum-drum as kuks, but hobbyists would probably find it appealing to score a species collected from a not so commonly collected place ..probably some genetic distance, maybe a morph starting to fork ...or...its just cool to own a "Chilean Grossa" even though it could all be a lie and it came from Cleveland. Well.. thats the rub here isnt it? I mean...Chilean Grossa look a hell of a lot like Cleveland Grossa and even if you could get one to talk, she'd probably be completely uninformed regarding the common naming conventions humans use to delineate different places in this world.
Todd's headlines are OK (IMO)...<edit> ok...its not that bad.. but ;P

 

[lucanidae]

In my search for how this happened, I found this:

<edit>

K. hibernalis isn't even on that import list. I also can't find any reference for K. hibernalis living on Barbados. I dunno, it all just seems very unscrupulous to me. The ad dosen't even say if these K. hibernalis came from Barbados.

 

[xenesthis]

K. hibernalis

Lucanidae,

Nobody said the K. hibernalis were rare or anything special. I just stated that the particular batch that I have are from Barbados. That's it. That's all. Nothing else.

I get the K. hibernalis with other stuff in my import. Due to import costs being so high (and they went up another $100 Jan. 9), I have to charge more from the K. hibernalis from Barbados v.s from the southern states of our country. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

The original import list's "Cheiracanthium diversium “Barbados Sac Spider” was not identified by the exporter correctly. They were instead K. hibernalis.

Just as what happened with the reptile hobby, our hobby has demanded the need for sexing and locality. Locality matters to some. So, I'm just giving the hobbyist more options. They can buy K. hibernalis from Florida for $9.75 or they can buy the Barbados form for $14. Either way, it's a free market and the hobbyist can choose. You can try to persuade them not to, but as the person that posted above me clearly makes a great point, you will not choose for them.

I could have listed them as Kukulcania sp. "Barbados Black Hole Spider", BUT I did not. I knew they were K. hibernalis. So my ad is truthful, not misleading and is only stating that these K. hibernalis are from Barbados. When I list K. hibernalis from the U.S., they are just listed as "Black Hole Spider".

 

[Nerri1029]

I think that's enough don't you?