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This is very is a very daunting task and very time consuming and VERY expensive those that have been through it will not give their papers away because of their time and money invested in obtaining it. (ME INCLUDED!)
You need to obtain a 'template list' of all theraphosid species and their bibliographies published before 1960. The only ones are either;
Bonnet, Pierre. Bibliographie Araneorum, Toulouse, Vol. 1 - 2 [there are
several volumes of these 'two volumes' and you need to look for them at a
large University library or borrow the books through interlibrary loan and
photocopy only the 'Barychelidae and Theraphosidae' and the huge bibliography].
or
Roewer, Carl. Katalog der Araneae. Bremen, Vol. 1, 1040 pp. [borrow the book
through interlibrary loan and photocopy only the 'Barychelidae and Theraphosidae'
and the huge bibliography].
Once you have this ... you can find the author/species publication info and
order it through interlibrary loans or look for it in large University libraries
Lastly, failing the above. try to find a large University library that has 'Zoological
Record' abstracts going back to the late 1800s. Every old University library has
these abstracts. In each year, look up 'Arachnida', then either 'Aviculariidae' or
'Theraphosidae' (family name changed around the late 1800s) and track your species papers down via that route.
Now what I have noticed is that most very old theraphosid descriptions are to be quite honest utter rubbish and not worth the paper they are printed on most are in Latin ( this is one big pain in the bum for a start if your an english speaking brummie) the more recent descriptions can come in all languages so being multilingual is a big bonus lol you can try to use online translators but they mostly come out garbled I must admit locating reading and comparing 'types' using old theraphodid descriptions has been the hardest thing I have ever done I'm only half way though Avicularia and its been a very long time since I started my search. I'm very lucky as Rick C West , Gérard DUPRE and the BNHM staff have helped one hell of a lot! and if I can help someone else then maybe they can return the favour to the next person and so on and so forth this way we will have many more possible taxonomists in the future and this can only help the hobby we all love so much!
After giving it some thought it has occured to me that the BTS has an extensive Reference Library.
We have a large number of papers and articles. If you need anything then you need to be specific in your request. If it is in the Library we can copy it and send it to you at cost.
Remember ithe more specific you are in your request the more chance we have of finding it.
Many of the BTS Committe also have copies of old papers and we would be more than willing to asssist in anyway possible.
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