04.09.2021

Avicularia sp. "pakuri" = Avicularia avicularia morph 6

Some time ago we received an adult female of Avicularia sp. "Pakuri" from Robert Pillmayer. We had never heard this name before. The appearance of this spider reminded us of those Avicularia forms, which are represented in the hobby as Avicularia sp. "metallica". We now attempted to identify this spider according to the existing, current identification keys of Caroline Fukushima & Rogério Bertani (2017) on the basis of an exuvia, which also succeeded amazingly well, after the animal had moulted with a so-called wet moult.

Following these keys on page 29ff, this Avicularia species is Avicularia avicularia morphotype 6! The following characteristics led to this conclusion:

- No stinging hairs on the palpal femora

- No black pattern on the legs

- Sternum clearly longer than broad (Pic 1)

- Terminal phalanx of posterior spinnerets distinctly elongated, finger-like (Pic 2)

- No spines on legs

- No stridulation organ present

- Row of anterior eyes strongly procurved (Pic 3)

- Spermathecae long, centrally not thickened, distinctly curved and strongly sclerotized (Pic 4)

- Type 2 urticating hairs short and distributed over entire upper side of opisthosoma (Pic 5)

---------> genus Avicularia

- Spermathecae not twisted and without "lobes" (Pic 4)

- Spermatheca not thickened in the middle (Pic 4)

- Leg IV clearly more than 10% longer than leg I (Pic 6)

- No distinct yellow joint rings between leg limbs (pic. 7)

----------> Species Avicularia avicularia

If you then look at Fig. 26 in the above mentioned Paper "Morphotype 6, Paramaribo, district of Paramaribo, Suriname (AMNH Su59)" and compare it with the spermatheca of our animal, the similar shape and the very similar distal thickening of the receptacles is immediately noticeable. The habitus images of the females in Figs. 42,43 & 45 also show a very similar appearance in terms of coloration and habitus to our animal (Pic 8​)

Resumé:

Based on the data, we believe that this is an Avicularia avicularia morphotype 6, whose range is probably somewhere in northeastern South America. We suggest to name this species in the hobby under the name Avicularia avicularia morph 6 "Pakuri", because this covers the obviously correct scientific name as well as the hobby name.

Reference:

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