Davus

Davus
Davus pentaloris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidae
Genus:	Davus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892 [1]
Type species
Davus fasciatus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892
Species
4, see text

Davus, also known as the tiger rump tarantulas, ^[2] is a genus of spiders in the family Theraphosidae (tarantulas). It was formerly included in Cyclosternum . ^[1] They are medium to large tarantulas, found in Central America and Mexico. ^[3]

Diagnosis

They are characterized by the opisthosomal pattern which are made of several red-orange stripes. Though further identification between species is decided mainly on the palpal bulb and spermatheca morphology. As Davus pentaloris owns a high variations of size, patterning and morphology. ^[3]

Species

As of October 2021 ^[update] , the World Spider Catalog accepted the following species: ^[1]

• Davus fasciatus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892 (type species) – Costa Rica, Panama
• Davus pentaloris (Simon, 1888) – Mexico, Guatemala
• Davus ruficeps (Simon, 1891) – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras
• Davus santos Gabriel, 2016 – Panama

In synonymy

• Davus drymusetes(Valerio, 1982) = Davus fasciatus
• Davus morosum(Banks, 1909) = Davus ruficeps
• Davus mozinnoEstrada-Alvarez, 2014 = Davus pentaloris
• Davus zebratum(Banks, 1909) = Davus ruficeps

References

1. "Gen. Davus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892", World Spider Catalog, Natural History Museum Bern, retrieved 2021-10-29
2. "Tiger Rump Tarantulas (Genus Davus)". iNaturalist.ca. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
3. Candia-Ramírez, Daniela T; Francke, Oscar F (2021-05-01). "Another stripe on the tiger makes no difference? Unexpected diversity in the widespread tiger tarantula Davus pentaloris (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae)" . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 192 (1): 75–104. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa107. ISSN   0024-4082.