Unidentifed T Picture from Texas

[AphonopelmaTX]

Although many sp. of Aphonopelma are quite similar in this region, I would call this one Aphonopelma hentzi or clarki.
A.anax is only found in south Texas, by the way.

Hi Tom,

Why would you call this A. hentzi or A. clarki? A. clarki was described to be vaguely located in Dallas (county, city, or who knows?). A. hentzi, possibly, but how can you tell from the picture?

- Lonnie

 

[stubby8th]

Hi Tom,

Why would you call this A. hentzi or A. clarki? A. clarki was described to be vaguely located in Dallas (county, city, or who knows?). A. hentzi, possibly, but how can you tell from the picture?

- Lonnie

Look exactly like the one I have here in front of me . . . A.hentzi
You da man Lonnie, what do you think?

 

[sick4x4]

Aphonopelma sp' looks right to me although sense we cant really see the color on the legs i would of said male bonnetina sp lol!!but since u are in texas ,aphonopelma for sure???did u keep it???

 

[Waspman]

I've found males of this sp. before in Texas, pretty sure it's an A. hentzi. I'm no expert, so I may be wrong.

 

[hamfoto]

As it has been said many times before...and never more evident than in male Aphonopelma!!! you cannot i.d. this T by a picture...
There are quite a few Aphonopelma males that look really similar.


Chris

 

[bananaman]

I have a similiar T that was sold to me as B.ruhnaui but later I was told it was an Aphonopelma... possibly A.caniceps... I know this doesnt help much, but we could have the same species being how I am so close to Texas, and mine was probably caught around here...

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Look exactly like the one I have here in front of me . . . A.hentzi
You da man Lonnie, what do you think?

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the compliment. As said before, there are so many male Aphonopelma sp. that superficially look the same but are quite different. Take these males as a small, non all inclusive example: Aphonopelma hentzi, A. texense, A. anax, and even A. chalcodes. All of these males look the same featuring dark grey to black legs, a copper colored carapace, and red-orange setae on the dorsal side of the abdomen. Even an unidentified species of Aphonopelma I have here from the central west region of Texas looks like the spider originally pictured from far west Texas!

Lets take another type of Aphonopelma male- the beautiful jet black ones! I won't really go into mentioning species this time but the all jet black males mostly occur in the desert regions of the west/ southwest region of the USA with of course the obvious exception of A. moderatum in the area of Laredo, TX. The point here is that if you were to picture a jet black male from, let's say, Phoenix, AZ, there would be no telling what species it could be because there are many different species in that area and state which would look exactly the same superficially. And I'm sure like Texas, Arizona's tarantula species are A) not well defined and B) their distribution is accurately mapped.

The point here is the same as the other statements. There would be no accuracey at all in guessing the species of an Aphonopelma sp. from the USA, or Texas in this case, without looking at species defining characters. But even then, those characters have to be properly defined first.
There is no way to positively ID a Texas tarantula based on locality info without first having the defined species' distribution accurately mapped. Although a better chance of a correct guess is likely with the latter.

Don't you wish there could be more discussion on Aphonopelma like the ones had for Haplopelma, Cyriopagopus, and the other genera where there is more clarity on the species and their distribution?

- Lonnie

 

[Freak Show]

Don't you wish there could be more discussion on Aphonopelma like the ones had for Haplopelma, Cyriopagopus, and the other genera where there is more clarity on the species and their distribution?

YES! :wall: