Cupiennius chiapanensis MEDINA SORIANO, 2006

[Michael Jacobi]

A new species of Cupiennius has been described from the mangrove forests of coastal Chiapas, Mexico where it is sympatric with Cupiennius salei. Interestingly though, the two species have never been collected at the same time. C. salei has been found during the wet season, whereas C. chiapanensis has been found during the dry season. This is also the first record of C. salei, previously considered to be exclusively a highland species, being found at sea level.

Medina Soriano, F.J. 2006.
A new species of Cupiennius (Araneae, Ctenidae) coexisting with Cupiennius salei in a Mexican mangrove forest.
The Journal of Arachnology 34(1): 135-141

Members of the AAS should have just received the new journal. Non-members will eventually be able to download the abstract by visiting http://www.americanarachnology.org/JOA_online.html#issues, but it has not been uploaded as of this writing.

To learn more about the genus Cupiennius make sure you get ARACHNOCULTURE 2(2) when it is released (currently in pre-production). The feature article, written by German true spider aficianado Stefan Hillebrecht, is about this genus.

Best regards, Michael

 

[hamfoto]

Michael,

hey, thanks for the heads-up on the story...very cool! I just got my membership to the AAS last week, so I'll look out for the journal.
And I'm glad you're doing an article on them for ARACHNOCULTURE...they're a highly underrated spider and more people should keep these...if not for the simple race-of-your-heart when they bolt!

Chris

 

[Stefan2209]

Hi there,

oh dear, Mike, what shall i say?

Feel torned between these two emotions:

1.) Thanks for approving!

2.) Damn you, how could you come up with even another Cupiennius species? Now i´ll have to do even more editing, than i had already planned to do....

Ok, going to edit that in, get hold of the promised pics and after that will be done, it´s time to get into writing that Phoneutria article....

Greetings,

Stefan