Aphonopelma caniceps locality

[Paul Cockerill]

Hi,

Bit of an oddball question, but does anyone know the full distribution range for A.caniceps?...

Paul.

[R Thomas]

Only information I could find was that it comes from Mexico but no tighter distribution as to where in Mexico it is and isnt found.

Richard

[Paul Cockerill]

Thanks Richard,

I'm aware they can be found in Mexico, but they are also native to the United States,..i'd be interested to know is it just Texas they're found or do they have a wider distribution range in the united states?

There's not a great deal of information regarding A. caniceps, even on the ATS forum which has a wealth of knowledge on North American natives, this spp. seems very hard to get hold of even for the US hobbyist.

If anyone has any data on this spp. i'd be very interested to hear more.

Paul.

[Colin D Wilson]

Even though you've posted on the ATS it may be worth sending a polite PM to the likes of Chris Hamilton, Christian Elowsky (ATS vice Pres), Eric Reynolds and KJ (Kevin Vezino) just in case they missed your post, they may be able to shed some light on the subject.
Dr. Stuart Longhorn has a vast knowledge about the genus (right down to DNA ) so a PM to him could prove fruitfull.

They're all members on here so you can compile a PM and "multi send" it in one go.

[Paul Cockerill]

Thanks for your help Colin.

Paul

[Christian Elowsky]

Brent has commented on the ATS thread, and I see this species being sold as coming out of Big Bend Texas, USA, but it does not exist in the US. Once Brent and Chris get the publications out, we'll be sharing the information regarding the US Aphonopelma. Everyone knows they're a mess!

[stuart longhorn]

Just bringing old thread back to life because of a discussion some of us (incl. Christan) had on facebook group for the BTS society.

I wrote
"Also a big solution is to open Smith 1994, it tells people the exact A.caniceps locality!, which is from Guanajuarto, MX. That is about 1000km to Big Bend if going north, or if instead going south about 900km from the false type site of B.schroederi reported in Rudloff 2003. Guanajuarto is about 1200km from the real type site of B.schroederi. I.e distance from london to Vienna. Discuss".

So, A.caniceps is from nowhere near BigBend Texas, so whoever named it that to trade them really had no clue. There is also nothing in the orignal description to suggest a gold carapace.
I mention B.schroederi because several specimens i examined purporting to be 'Aphonopelma caniceps' all proved to be a Brachypelma sp, either B.schroederi or something very very close.
And fyi, when B.schroederi was first in the hobby it was called 'Brachypelma sp Gold' when first traded, because the juveniles typically have a light golden carapace