Paraphysa scrofa from Jamie's!

Tarac

Arachnolord
Joined
Oct 6, 2011
Messages
618
Just checked with Jamie, and my spider is, to the best of her knowledge and confidence, a Paraphysa scrofa. I am inclined to agree, upon reviewing her photos of her Euathlus sp. "red" and Paraphysa scrofa. For one, the red setae pattern is wrong for Euathlus and right for her Paraphysa scrofa. Another point is that the abdomen is too oblong to be Euathlus, but just right for Paraphysa scrofa.

I trust Jamie's judgment here without question. She's an excellent dealer and an asset to the hobby.
This is not at all to impugn Jamie's integrity, I also own spiders from her and have been very happy with her and the babies I got from her... BUT, she is also not the first good dealer that has vended E. sp "red" as a Paraphysa species. Two others I have purchased from were sold lots of "Paraphysa" that were all Euathlus sp. "red" so that is three total reputable dealers that I alone have seen this very scenario with. One said that he was told that's what they were by the importer (these were very small, not adult colored at that point) and the other said the same thing but after inquiring with importer was given E. sp "red" as the correct ID and apology, which was passed along to me. Personally I don't get upset since I know it happens and that the mistake was in complete good faith with my preferred dealers.

What this points to is a lack of formal description and importers who bring in these species and call them whatever they want/think, so long as they sell. Without a formal description as a benchmark it's not surprising this happens, and it gets even more complicated when you think of how incomplete the chain of evidence often is. Some guy getting paid very little scooping up any tarantula he can find, boxing them up, taking them to another guy who gets paperwork and maybe fudges a name or ten so they can get export permits in a timely fashion, and so on. Locality data lost, the original collector may not be that knowledgeable anyway, then the permits have incorrect IDs or localities or both listed on them and it goes on. Just a hazard of hobby and why breeding has to be done responsibly, not just based on "such and such a dealer that I trust blindly told me it was definitely this species."

I would not confidently say this is Paraphysa scrofa, or even in the genus, at best. I personally doubt it very strongly. I am going with Euathlus as well, it looks nothing at all like the P. scrofa I have seen and own in that particular image you posted.

Also, trusting judgment without question is how we get into these mixups. Always question, otherwise you are making a "faith" based decision that could ultimately lead to accidental hybridizing, etc. etc. If you can't find a positive answer, then "I think but can't be 100% certain" is a perfectly acceptable answer because it's accurate. Scientists regularly use confidence intervals or other qualifiers as to the legitimacy of the information they are conveying for precisely these kinds of issues. There are so many tarantulas that have this problem, it's not surprising at all. It does seem that this one a bit confused right now in particular, which is also a good reason to wonder.

Get us some more pictures of those qualities you mentioned- the sides, the coppery color, etc. That should help get some better idea as to what that may be called in the hobby, Paraphysa scrofa or otherwise.
 
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