Pterinochilus chordatus
Pterinochilus chordatus
The African tarantula Pterinochilus chordatus was described in 1873 by Carl Eduard Adolph Gerstäcker.
Appearance and Body
The females are 50 millimeters long, the males 30 millimeters. The bulb is pear-shaped. Along the embolus no keels are present. The carapace is beige, gray or black in color with golden radial lines. Front and rear body are mainly gray and beige. To the eyes of the hill is a dark "mask". The back of the abdomen is gray or black and fitted with a bone pattern. The type does not have stinging hairs.
Habitat
The seven species of the genus Pterinochilus are common in Central Africa and East Africa. Pterinochilus chordatus lives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The spider inhabits open landscapes such as the savannas. There she often sits in sand pits. She spins tubes into which they can retreat. It occurs at altitudes up to 2100 m before.
Way of life
The spiders are often in open areas down, they are down alive and very active during the day. Because the species has no burning hair, it is aimed at fault stridulierend and proposes using the buttons and front legs.
The bite of the spider is not dangerous but very painful for the people.
System
Because of the diversity of coloration often color variants of Pterinochilus chordatus have been described as distinct species. By 2002, 23 species in the genus Pterinochilus had accumulated. During the Second World War in the fire of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart numerous type specimens of the naturalist beach were Embrik (1876-1953) has been lost, what a Revisison difficult. Finally, in the Revisison the genus Pterinochilus by Richard C. Gallon, in 2002 the species Pterinochilus wide manni beach, 1906, P. raptor beach, 1906, P. affinis Tullgren, 1910, P. sjostedti Tullgren, 1910, P. Carnivorus beach, 1917 P. brunellii Caporiacco, 1940 and Coelogenium raveni Smith, 1990 merged with Pterinochilus chordatus. From the locality of the type specimen of Kilimanjaro comes the English name Kilimanjaro mustard baboon (Kilimanjaro mustard tarantula ). The German name Kilimanjaro tarantula is used for Pterinochilus meridionalis.