Augcephaleus .....?

[wayne randall]

Hi guys, ive had a augcephaleus sp. "mozambique" in my posession for sometime now, is this the same as augcephaleus junodi? Or what is the difference betwwen the 2?

[Phil Rea]

No, they're not the same

I'm sure Richard Gallon will chime in with a more technical (and accurate lol) answer, but two obvious visual differences between the two are the 'hairs' on the front legs and the orange markings on the tarsi.

In the females at least, if the 'hairs' are not extremely dense, then it's not A. junodi, and if the reddish/orange tarsal markings are present, then it's sp. 'mozambique'.

The males are also very different. Junodi males are very small in comparison to the female and don't have tibial spurs, whereas 'mozambique' males are much larger and do have tibial spurs.

If I wasn't going out in a few minutes, I'd take a picture of both for you

[Phil Rea]

A better picture than I could come up with of real Augacephalus junodi in Craig's post here (ignore the pictures of P. miranda in the same post ). Note the dense femoral brushes on the front legs.

And a picture of Augacephalus sp. 'Mozambique' in Lee's post here, showing the orange/brown patches on the tarsi.

By the way, Richard's paper formally describing A. junodi and A. breyeri can be found in the forum's downloads section (marked Pterinochilus and Eucratoscelus revision paper).

Gallon, R.C. (2002) Revision of the African genera Pterinochilus and Eucratoscelus (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Harpactirinae) with description of two new genera.
Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 12, pp. 201-232.

As always in the world of spiders there are undoubtedly changes in the pipeline, so keep your eyes on the BTS forum

[Eduard Johan Hijmensen]

also see here:

http://www.the-t-store.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=11898&hl=junodi&st=0

[James Box]

thanks for that info Phil...i've had what i've been calling Augacephalus sp "Mozambique" for over a year myself, bought from Lee, and i wasn't 100% sure i had the right name, but now i'm quite a bit more sure, thanks to your info.
i didn't have immediate plans for breeding, but nice to know that the possibility exists now, with some degree of certainty.

this spider is one of the jewels of my collection, and in my opinion, definitely a "flagship" species for the region... mine even has a pretty calm temperament for an old world species! obviously, i wouldn't poke her, but tank maintenance and feeding are no stress. amazing creatures

[wayne randall]

augcephaleus behaviour

same behaviour as mine there, very placid, but stays in her tunnel 99% of the time