Anyone know what this one is?

[Vicky Child]

http://1pablo-diablo1.deviantart.com/art/spider-II-161305418

Is it a tarantula or a true spider?

Either way it's lovely,

[Zoltan Mihaly Lestyan]

Definitely not a tarantula (= family Theraphosidae). Maybe a wolf spider (family Lycosidae)?

[Joanna Pendleton]

the person who posted it also said this:
South Russian tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis)

x

[Larry Shone]

Hmm, the pics not showing for me but i got that its a Lycosid. Also theres a spider group on that page that I just joined!

[Zoltan Mihaly Lestyan]

the person who posted it also said this:
South Russian tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis)

x

The curse of common names. For all intents and purposes, wolf spiders are not tarantulas. Mostly when people use the word "tarantula" (especially on this forum), they refer to the family Theraphosidae. Spiders from genera such as Lycosa, Pardosa, Hogna &c are members of the family Lycosidae, commonly called wolf spiders, which belongs to a Araneomorphae, a different group of spiders than the one the family Theraphosidae is in (Mygalomorphae).

[Larry Shone]

And it doesn't help that a spanish wolf spider was originally named Lycosa tarantulla,since renamed. It probably gave its name to a spanish dance,the Tarantella, named because its movements supposedly resembled those made by a person bit by the spider!

[Joanna Pendleton]

The curse of common names. For all intents and purposes, wolf spiders are not tarantulas. Mostly when people use the word "tarantula" (especially on this forum), they refer to the family Theraphosidae. Spiders from genera such as Lycosa, Pardosa, Hogna &c are members of the family Lycosidae, commonly called wolf spiders, which belongs to a Araneomorphae, a different group of spiders than the one the family Theraphosidae is in (Mygalomorphae).

Aaaah, I thought it was a type Id never heard of in the tarantula world before, now I know why - it's not a tarantula! Thanks for that Zoltan!
J x

[Zoltan Mihaly Lestyan]

And it doesn't help that a spanish wolf spider was originally named Lycosa tarantulla,since renamed. It probably gave its name to a spanish dance,the Tarantella, named because its movements supposedly resembled those made by a person bit by the spider!

According to Platnick, it's still a valid species: Lycosa tarantula (Linnaeus, 1758 ). Browsing through the Lycosidae page of the Catalog, it seems that some wolf spider species were once published with the generic name Tarantula, but it's not included in the synonymy list. Possibly it's a case of homonymy (same name used for two different groups of animals), since Tarantula was a tailless whip-scorpion genus (order Amblypygi), but this generic name has been suppressed. One of the reasons for this was (quote from Quintero, 1981):

"[the name] Tarantula is hopelessly compromised, having been used with a variety of meaning in Hexapoda and even for a fish, and being associated in the vernacular with a genus far removed from the Amblypygi."

So, one could even argue that the common name "tarantula" for Theraphosidae is not the wisest choice, but I don't see this name changing anytime soon.

[Colin D Wilson]

I'll quote what i wrote a bit back
Little bit of history ... or as the story goes .........

Lycosa Tarantula is a common wolf spider in southern italy (species described thus after being widespread around the area of the city Taranto)
In the early days the bite of a L. tarantula was considered to be fatal (and cause tarantism) and so the bitten victim used to dance the Tarantella to purge the venom from the body by sweating, fever etc.
Through the ages the word tarantula has been adopted by many cultures to be the collective description of large spiders, this includes any spider large enough to have a fearsome appearance and, due to folk law, be able to give a fatal bite.
In reality it was the bite of the mediteranean black widow that many people died of, and through word of mouth from village to village the size of the spider grew and the time it took for the person to die shortened just to make it a more impressive story.