List of Pamphobeteus species in the hobby

[AphonopelmaTX]

Agree with your points. So, what's the solution to this mess? We can't have species just named "RED". We can't have two species found in the same locality named (for example) Pamphobeteus sp. "Quito"......how about this: Pamphobeteus sp. "Red-back Quito" and Pamphobeteus sp. "Chestnut Brown Quito"?....anything like this would help until the species are described. The thing is, breeders/sellers are going to do whatever, so our 2 cents in the final analysis will not matter here.

I think you answered your own question here. In my opinion as soon as tarantulas are removed from their natural environment and enter the pet trade they become novelties for people to collect and admire so it doesn’t matter what you call them. I understand when it comes to live animals one needs to know exactly what they have for captive breeding efforts and to ensure someone bought what they paid for, but when the pet trade works faster than the science, that is an impossibility. Besides, even if there was a major revision of the genus Pamphobeteus published and all species were properly described and their distributions mapped, very few people in the keeping community would know how to use such a document to identify the species in the pet trade.

 

[xenesthis]

I think you answered your own question here. In my opinion as soon as tarantulas are removed from their natural environment and enter the pet trade they become novelties for people to collect and admire so it doesn’t matter what you call them. I understand when it comes to live animals one needs to know exactly what they have for captive breeding efforts and to ensure someone bought what they paid for, but when the pet trade works faster than the science, that is an impossibility. Besides, even if there was a major revision of the genus Pamphobeteus published and all species were properly described and their distributions mapped, very few people in the keeping community would know how to use such a document to identify the species in the pet trade.

Agree. Another issue is that the scientific community often doesn't work well with the pet hobby, and then there is a situation within the scientific community that individuals don't share info well in their community, and that affects the pet hobby when hobbyists are trying to keep up with all the name changes. Some of us are really using those brother printing machines excessively with re-labeling every 3 months.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Agree. Another issue is that the scientific community often doesn't work well with the pet hobby, and then there is a situation within the scientific community that individuals don't share info well in their community, and that affects the pet hobby when hobbyists are trying to keep up with all the name changes. Some of us are really using those brother printing machines excessively with re-labeling every 3 months.

I don't think the scientific community has any obligation to the pet keepers in any way shape or form. They are more focused on studying the natural diversity and other aspects of tarantula biology and not so much on what people are out there collecting up to be sold around the world. We can then loop back to original problem of the issue of collectors not providing any information as to where and in what environment some of these tarantulas are originating from. In natural history, location and field notes are extremely important in the study of natural diversity and without it, those big beautiful tarantulas are worthless to study. To me the issue is the pet trade doesn't work well with the scientific community in that they (whoever they are) are keeping natural history information a trade secret.

There is also another aspect I find to be true in that the pet keepers and traders- in general- don't understand how much work it takes to properly identify a tarantula or any spider. There is a skill issue in the pet keeping hobby that is more of a hinderance to understanding what is being bought and sold more than a communication issue from the scientific community. This is understandable because people typically buy a tarantula that they want to take care of and admire without having to study biology to figure out what they have, but those with those skillset and experience are not obligated to help. It is just too nuanced and time consuming to help everyone out. A good example of this skill issue is how people still think how much black on the carapace distinguishes B. hamorii from B. smithi, even when there is a perfectly good and easy to follow identification key freely available that says carapace markings are highly variable.

The publications of any scientist is the communication and it is up to each individual involved in the pet keeping community to learn a bit about how to read those publications, use them, and understand why the name changes occur. That is, if they really care about knowing what they are buying and/ or breeding. I equate the relationship between the scientific community and the pet keeping community to my own personal experience working in the IT industry for over 20 years. I have the skills to help anyone troubleshoot and fix issues with their home computers and networks, but I choose not to because I do it all day every day and would rather spend my free time doing something else. I used to be the "computer guy" for my friends and family but stopped by claiming ignorance of their problem just because I got tired of repeating myself by saying "I need to see the problem in order to fix it." This is similar to tarantula identification in that you really need to have the dead body of an adult male or female to identify it correctly, but only if there is a good identification key that has been published. I can't imagine what it would be like to have my e-mail inbox fill up with questions similar to the posts I see in the Tarantula Identification gallery!