Species descriptions

[wayne balcombe]

where is the best place to look for original and updated descriptions of genus and species of theraphosidae?

[Martin Huber]

Via interlending you should get any article you are asking for.

[Ray Hale]

Martin is quite right Wayne. Many of us have papers and descriptions and keep abreast of any changes. I dont think many of us collect all new papers but collectively we probably have most of them.

Also many new decriptions are published in the BTS, ATS, BAS, DeARGE and the European journals.

Ask the question Wayne and someone will provide the answer.

Ray

[wayne balcombe]

thank you ray.

the specific articles i'm looking for are the discriptions and classifications for the subfamilies:

EUMENOPHORINAE
HARPACTIRINAE
ORNITHOCTONINAE
SELENOCOSMIINAE
THERAPHOSINAE

i would also like to break this down further into the individual species within these subfamilies and have as a finished result a catalogue if you like of the species discriptions, any taxonomy data, captive care, and my own experiences of keeping and breeding etc.

the tarantula bibliography has been an invaluable point of reference but i've still been un able to find most of the information i need. when it comes to reaearch of this kind i'm a total novice and am struggling to find anything of value to this project.

if any of you have anything you think may help or have any advice on finding said information i would be eternally grateful.

[wayne balcombe]

can anyone offer any assistance? does anyone have any of these papers in pdf format or copies they could send? can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Phil Rea]

can anyone offer any assistance? does anyone have any of these papers in pdf format or copies they could send? can anyone point me in the right direction?

As Ray and Martin have pointed out, there are many people with many articles who are glad to help, but you've got to provide more information than simply asking for any and all papers on four subfamilies to be sent.

For instance, you have asked for papers regarding Harpactirinae. There are a number of papers, going back to 1871 on members of that subfamily.

There are a number of taxonomic papers by (in no particular order, and not a complete list by any means) Pocock, Hewitt, Gallon, Gerstäcker, Purcell, Walckenaer, Strand, Smith, Simon, Schmidt, Fage, Schmidt and von Wirth, Ausserer, Berland, De Wet and Dippenaar-Schoeman, and Peters. Not to mention other more general papers.

You will struggle to get hold of anything other than a photocopy of many papers, including Purcell's paper (as it is quite large, and I don't think anyone has managed to scan the whole thing), well you will actually struggle to get a photocopy even! However if you fancy a trip to Belgium, I can put you in touch with a couple of people there who have the original paper in their library. I believe there is a copy in Liverpool too and also Cape Town, but I haven't got round to visiting either yet

Some of Pocock's papers (or parts of them) are obtainable, but there are a lot that you may need to go to a library and get them that way (sometimes a even a specific library). However, some of them are extremely rare, some are from journals and societies that no longer exist and so on, so it's not just a case of popping down to your local library and asking them to order them in. If you are a faculty member or a student, many university libraries can help you. It is potentially a mammoth task though.

More recent papers are generally available in PDF though (and some of the oldies), just so you're not too downhearted!

First of all though Wayne, we can help you get started on Harpactirinae very easily with Richard Gallon's papers (including one that has only just been published). They are all available for download in the BTS Forum Downloads Section - here. Those will provide an excellent starting point.

I'd recommend you read and digest them, look at the references cited in those papers for further information, and take it from there

[Martin Huber]

can anyone offer any assistance? does anyone have any of these papers in pdf format or copies they could send?

can you please specify which papers you are looking for. Regarding those subfamilies you mentioned, I have a few hundred papers. Too many to send you all (would take too much time).

[wayne balcombe]

thank you ray and martin.

i appologise if my requests appear a little vague, i'm still learning and am not completely confident with the names and dates specific articles were published and the authors, i know many papers have been written on these subfamilies and the individual genus and species within them and that some of the species will have been described several times by different people or as they are re classified etc, i'm starting to feel i've bitten off more than i can chew and although i'm a complete novice in comparrison to some of the god's of the BTS i have to start somewhere.

If there is a general discription for the subfamilies i.e a paper how the subfamily of a spider is determined, goegraphical range etc i would be interested but the specific genus discriptions and taxonomy papers i'm looking for are:

for EUMENOPHORINAE

Cytharischius
Hysterocrates

for HARPACTIRINAE

Ceratogyrus
Pterinichilus
Eucrastocelus

for ORNITHOCTONINAE

Cyriopagopus
Haplopelma
Lampropelma

for SELENOCOSMIINAE

Chilobrachys
Haplocosmia
Selenocosmia
Poecilotheria
Psalmopoeus
Tapinauchenius

for THERAPHOSINAE

Aphonopelma
Brachypelma
Chromatopelma
Cyriocosmus
Euathalus
Lasiodora
Megaphobema
Nhandu
Phormicoptus
Theraphosa
Thrixopalma
Vitalius
Xenesthis

I apreciate this has not narrowed it down much but I dont know how else to go about it.

[wayne balcombe]

Phil, thank you for your post, it almost scares me to think of the hours, days, weeks and years it must take to track down and digest that much information.

i knew i was undertaking a mommoth task but may have underestimated it slightly

i have downloaded the Herpactirinae article you suggested and will be going through that after my tea tonight.

thank you again for your insight.

[stuart longhorn]

Dear Wayne,

I'm also one of those people with a(n almost huge) collection of descriptions and taxonomy papers that you might be interested in (actually a huge number thanks to martin), but yes, its important to approach this with specific questions in mind, and being aware that lots of descriptions are very old, vary hugely in quality, and often in many different languages.. ie are papers written in archaeic swedish or brazilan portuguese really of use to you?

So, here's some pointers.:
I think the below reference is still very useful:
Smith (1986) Tarantula Classification and Identification guide. Fitzgerald publishing. (theres one on amazon for £65 right now... bargain!)

Though well out of date, the fundamentals are in this, and the overview of subfamilies and ranges are in here. There have been some big changes since then, and more on the way, but this is a great starting point.

or if you speak german, the following is useful. Schmidt 2003. Die vogelspinnen. Westarp Wissenschaften.

Theres also one from Smith 1994 on the Tarantulas of USA and Mexico , or Smith 1990 on african baboon spiders.

Else, Michael Jacobi's tarantula bibliography is a great resource, just updated, so im glad you found that. Its now upto date.
Many of the sources are from those listed in Norman Platnicks refererence set on recent taxonomy status. Heres the genera/species, with older names below each current one. There is also a list of the original papers this list is based on elsewhere on the website.

http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/THERAPHOSIDAE.html

Worth also looking at the webpage of Radan Kaderka for some useful insights on Theraphosinae in particular, and some other lineages.

http://www.theraphosidae.cz/taxonomy.htm

A key reference there is Perez-Miles et al. 1996. Systematic Revision of the Theraphosinae. (Mygalomorpha). Many of us have a .pdf of that one. (the lucky few have a full official print, the lucky so-and-so's.)

In general, specific papers for genus descriptions dont exist, unless there has been a revision of the genus as a whole. Generally, a species is described as being so different to described ones that it deserves a new genus, then other newer species are added into the new genus later if they share taxonomic features.

Finally,
I think 'we' can also say there is a major revision in progress of all african theraphosids on its way, to be in a book store near you when its finished.

Hope the pointers help. Perhaps, it time to spend some money on the main books? But, happily advice from forum members is free.

stuart

[Ray Hale]

I have found an invaluable source to be

Arachnida: Araneae: Theraphosidae
Systematik Teil 1
By Robert Samm

ISSN 09448667

Dont know if you can stil get it but it lists hundreds of papers on most species in chronoligical order.

Ray

[stuart longhorn]

I see your Samm reference (=1999), and i raise you Huber, Samm and Schmidt (1996) Theraphosidae der Welt. Arachnol. Magazin.

Another useful published list, but now also badly outdated, so the newer online catalogs do the job much better to me....

[Stanley A. Schultz]

where is the best place to look for original and updated descriptions of genus and species of theraphosidae?

First, go to http://research.amnh.org/entomology/...APHOSIDAE.html, the theraphosid section of the World Spider Catalog. Use your browser's search function (Usually, <Ctrl>F. NOT this forum's search utility.) to find the references for the species you need. This is pretty much the most complete itemization of spider taxonomy and literature you're going to find anywhere. Here's an example.

Gen. Brachypelma Simon, 1891 [urn:lsid:amnh.org:spidergen:00200]

...
mf emilia (White, 1856) *....................Mexico [urn:lsid:amnh.org:spidersp:001859]
Mygale e. White, 1856: 185, pl. 43 (Dm).
Brachypelma aemilia Simon, 1891h: 338 (Dmf).
Eurypelma e. F. O. P.-Cambridge, 1897a: 19, pl. 2, f. 5 (m).
Brachypelma e. Smith, 1986b: 49, f. 27h (Tmf from Eurypelma=Avicularia).
Brachypelma e. Smith, 1987d: 49, pl. 2, f. 27h (m).
Brachypelma e. Hancock & Hancock, 1989: 46, f. 41 (f).
B. e. Schmidt, 1992a: 10 (Tmf from Euathlus per Raven).
B. e. Schmidt, 1993d: 82, f. 188 (f).
Euathlus e. Baxter, 1993: 72, f. 19-20 (f).
B. e. Smith, 1995: 166, f. 901-915 (mf).
B. e. Pérez-Miles et al., 1996: 46, f. 9-10 (mf).
B. e. Tesmoingt, Cleton & Verdez, 1997a: 9, pl. 2, f. 6 (f).
B. e. Schmidt, 1997g, 1998h: 19, f. 191, 193 (mf).
B. e. Locht, Yáñez & Vázquez, 1999: 196, f. 7 (f).
B. e. Peters, 2000a: 68, f. 222 (f).
B. e. Bertani, 2001: 338, f. 153-156 (mf).
B. e. Peters, 2003: 117, f. 473-474, 477, 480, 483 (mf).

As you ferret out each entry you can find the exact reference by visiting http://research.amnh.org/entomology/...og/BIBLIO.html, the "Bibliography." Click the correct year or year span. Do a search for the correct year (when multiple years are listed), then do a search for the lead author's name. If an author published several papers in a given year there is a small letter after the year in the citation. (See the highlighted entry above.) Thus, the highlighted entry refers to the first paper published by Peters in 2000:

Peters, H.-J. (2000a). Tarantulas of the world: Kleiner Atlas der Vogelspinnen - Band 1. Published by the author, 148 pp.

Once you collect a number of references you can ask us for the work. If some of us have it we may be able to send a copy to you. However, don't get your hopes up. There are more than 900 recognized species of tarantulas with about a third of them found in captivity at one point or another within the last 50 years. And, each species has several, often dozens, of papers associated with it. If necessary, you can go to a lot of university libraries to search for any you really need to get. It's time consuming, but doable. Besides, you needed another hobby anyway, no?

[stuart longhorn]

Thanks for getting the discussion back on track.

Yes, the platnick catalog can be very useful, and thanks for the clarity on how to use it there. I initially found it difficult to locate the right references under each species, so that guide is really helpful.

stuart

[Ray Hale]

I see your Huber, Samm and Schmidt (1996) Theraphosidae der Welt. Arachnol. Magazin. and raise you The British Library

An excellent resource if you know exactly waht you are looking for. You can join and request papers but they do cost.

I acquired many of my Selenocosmia paper from there.

Ray