Just wondering...

[Phillip]

Who started the whole calling usambaras P murinus craze? Sorry but I would have to disagree on this one guys. Yes they look similar but so does most of the genus. The main thing that causes me to disbelieve it though is that I have talked to different people who have bred them and even kept several babies up until they got some size on them and guess what.. no yellow ones in the batch. Now I've heard the theory of how both morphs can come from one batch but find it hard to believe that this is so when Kelly who has probably bred more species than anyone and has certainly bred usambaras enough to know has yet to see a single yellow one out of them all. Sorry guys and gals but it is a different species regardless of what some may think.

Phil

 

[Immortal_sin]

Phil,
someone synonomized (sp?) them and published it...not sure who...there was a thread about this a while back. I resisted for a long time, calling them Pterinochilus sp. I have just now started calling them P murinus, after I read that thread.
Can someone that knows what they are doing (on a faster connection) find that thread for Phil?!

 

[conipto]

I'm no taxonomist, and far from a tarantula expert, but remember back in high school you probably had to learn all about gregor mendel and his plants? with the dominant and recessive gene traits? Is it not possible the orange coloration is just that, a dominant trait? Aside from color, the Usambara's look identical in marking/shape to other P. murinus I've seen photos of.

Also, is anyone mating the orange variety with the yellow ones? I guess if they were totally different species, you'd get hybrids or nothing at all, wouldn't you? With the ease I am hearing people getting eggsacs with, anyone care to try? Probably not, because the orange ones are way nicer to look at

Bill

 

[minax]

I think some people get the wrong idea about the classification of the usambar/murinus. The premise is that the usambar is a color variant and different locality than the murinus, not so much of a color "morph". Similar to A.chalcodes having different color varients and localities but it is still the same species. The same with most reptiles; blood pythons( python curtis brongersmai)have different color varients such as sumatran(red grey), while the malaysian from near Kuala Lumpur are orange/tan. But they are the exact same species. When you breed animals of said color locality/variation, it is impossible to get a differrent color variety, because of the difference in locality. Part of the confusion lies in the fact that some collecters/importers hide the locality of where they collect valuable species. In summary, most taxonomists believe the usambar is a locality/geographic based varient of the murinus. Therefore it would be impossible to have yello varients with a orange clutch, or vice-versa.