Phormictopus sp.purple, classification question

[Beary Strange]

I've been seeing a Phormictopus popping up for sale lately labelled cautus, at least one of which has '(violet)' beside it. This has me wondering if during the time I was away from the boards, sp.purple was classified/named. Is this the case or is cautus different? The only luck I had with Google were image results indicating it could be the case, but you know Google images...I did find something while searching, a thread from 2009 claiming that sp.purple is a color phase or sub of cancerides. ::

 

[Philth]

Things are getting confusing as usuall, as more unsubscribed species that all look alike enter the hobby.

Later, Tom

 

[awiec]

I have a P.sp Purple as well and I've just decided that when my male matures I'll return him to the guy who bred him as I at least know that he will breed with the same species instead of a possible sub-species or something totally different with the "sp Purple" moniker.

 

[pyro fiend]

iv got a little suspected male whos supposed to be a sp purple sense 1" whos now ~3.5-4", whos been tracked back to John Apple [tho he wont reply back on facebook to verify the sale] and i have a cancerides i got at ~1/2" and now at ~2" i feel they look a bit different.. maybe its the 6month or so difference in having them.. but def seems different but i too have my doubts..

tho color phorm does seem likely.. it would still be a bad thing in my mind to cross them.. thats like lions... there are many different types/subspecies , but i dont believe we should be crossing them just to do it ya know?? kinda like rosea porteri mess.. we may never know till someone sends in specimen to be ided of both sexes? maybe multiples. but id love to know if this is real or maybe its just a random coloration like we see in herps?

 

[dredrickt]

I have two sp. Purple sub adult females (were sold as sp Purple anyway), and both look exactly like Cancerides. I also have 3 juvenile sp Purple, and all 3 have different coloration on their legs than my two supposed sub adult females.

Regarding cautus, I messaged Paul Becker about those, he believes "Violet" is a color variation of Cautus. I'm still interested in buying a couple, but I'm hesitant due to my "sp Purple" debacle.

 

[awiec]

iv got a little suspected male whos supposed to be a sp purple sense 1" whos now ~3.5-4", whos been tracked back to John Apple [tho he wont reply back on facebook to verify the sale] and i have a cancerides i got at ~1/2" and now at ~2" i feel they look a bit different.. maybe its the 6month or so difference in having them.. but def seems different but i too have my doubts..

tho color phorm does seem likely.. it would still be a bad thing in my mind to cross them.. thats like lions... there are many different types/subspecies , but i dont believe we should be crossing them just to do it ya know?? kinda like rosea porteri mess.. we may never know till someone sends in specimen to be ided of both sexes? maybe multiples. but id love to know if this is real or maybe its just a random coloration like we see in herps?

Ah you probably have my spider's sac mate. He told me he bred the one I have but had sold them to various sellers in the area which is how I got my spider. I think if you kinda mention the various hands the spider went through it should jog John's memory as he sells and deals with a lot of people/spiders. But mine is about the same size yours is and I've had "him" for about 1.5 years or so

 

[Tomoran]

I am very interested in this as well. This seems to be quite a confusing genus at the moment, and I wonder how many of the undescribed species might just be color variations (sp. purple, sp. green, etc). I did some digging to try to determine if sp. purple were still thought to be a color variation of cancerides, but I couldn't seem to find a consensus. I will say that one of my female purples just molted, and she is definitely a different color than my female cancerides of the same approximate size. Still, could be the same species with just a different color tone.

I also bought two of the Phormictopus cautus violet slings under the assumption that they were just color variants of cautus, but there is some confusion there. I'm also wondering about Phormictopus sp. south hispanola, which I have but could find very little on.

Don't get me wrong; I love the genus, so I will likely continue to pick up any species offered. But I'm starting to feel as if when this is sorted out, I'm going to have plenty of duplicate species.

 

[pyro fiend]

Ah you probably have my spider's sac mate. He told me he bred the one I have but had sold them to various sellers in the area which is how I got my spider. I think if you kinda mention the various hands the spider went through it should jog John's memory as he sells and deals with a lot of people/spiders. But mine is about the same size yours is and I've had "him" for about 1.5 years or so

Well i tried to tell him whos hands it came from and asked if it rang any bells (supposed to be a good friend of his) but i guess my msges went to "other" box because its not even read and i sent it in june.. Back then my juvie was aprox 18months ^.^.. I got "him" from misslanie29 (may have wrong number) who got it from brandon rose.. I tried to ask john if he remembers this sack and can confirm, as in my mind without him saying "oh yea i def sold them to him" its iffy because johns so well known thats a name you can throw around for "a quick sale" alas im at the end of my rope xD

 

[awiec]

Well i tried to tell him whos hands it came from and asked if it rang any bells (supposed to be a good friend of his) but i guess my msges went to "other" box because its not even read and i sent it in june.. Back then my juvie was aprox 18months ^.^.. I got "him" from misslanie29 (may have wrong number) who got it from brandon rose.. I tried to ask john if he remembers this sack and can confirm, as in my mind without him saying "oh yea i def sold them to him" its iffy because johns so well known thats a name you can throw around for "a quick sale" alas im at the end of my rope xD

It's very possible it did as he talks to a lot of people on facebook, I only became his "fb friend" a few months ago and thats after almost 2 years of buying and talking to him at shows.

 

[pyro fiend]

It's very possible it did as he talks to a lot of people on facebook, I only became his "fb friend" a few months ago and thats after almost 2 years of buying and talking to him at shows.

Oh well. I prob wont do anything with him was just for my own selfish knowledge xD if i have a girl shell be a pet if boy.. Well sucks to suck i guess, but id rather treat it like a hybrid without verification then send it off and muddy the waterlol