Avicularia variegata

Avicularia variegata is a species of spider in the family Theraphosidae found in Venezuela and Brazil. Previously described as Avicularia avicularia variegata, it is synonymous with Avicularia bicegoi.[1]

Avicularia variegata
Female, morphotype 2
Male, morphotype 2
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Mygalomorphae
Family: Theraphosidae
Genus: Avicularia
Species:
A. variegata
Binomial name
Avicularia variegata
Synonyms[1]

When sold as pets, various English names have been associated with the scientific names of this species. As A. avicularia variegata, it has been called the grizzled pinktoe.[2] As A. bicegoi, English names often refer to the red hairs on the abdomen of one colour form – Manaus brick-red rump tree spider,[2] brick red pink toe.[3]

Taxonomy

In 1896, Frederick O. Pickard-Cambridge described spiders he had observed during an expedition to the Amazon basin as the subspecies variegata of the species Avicularia avicularia. He based the distinction on variations in colour, particularly of the leg hairs (setae), considering them insufficient to justify separation into two species. In 2017, Caroline Fukushima and Rogério Bertani made a detailed study of the genus and concluded that there were other differences that did justify specific status. Avicularia variegata has legs I and IV of more-or-less the same length, Avicularia avicularia has the fourth leg more than 10% longer than the first leg, and in the female the spermathecae of A. variegata are wider in the middle whereas those of A. avicularia are as wide in the middle as at the base. In 1923, Cândido Firmino de Mello-Leitão described Avicularia bicegoi. Fukushima and Bertani considered this to be the same species as A. variegata.[4]

Distribution

Avicularia variegata is found in Venezuela and the northern Brazilian states of Roraima, Amapá, Amazonas and Pará.[4]

References
  1. "Taxon details Avicularia variegata F.O. P-Cambridge, 1896", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2017-03-12
  2. Schultz, Stanley A. & Shultz, Marguerite J. (1998), The Tarantula Keeper's Guide, Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron's, p. 265, ISBN 978-0-7641-3885-0
  3. "Scientific Names to Common Names", Tarantulasrus, archived from the original on 2017-03-12, retrieved 2017-03-12
  4. Fukushima, C.S. & Bertani, R. (2017), "Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae) with description of three new aviculariine genera", ZooKeys (659): 1–185, Suppl. 1–5, doi:10.3897/zookeys.659.10717, PMC 5345366, PMID 28331414


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