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OBT RCF or normal orange?

24K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  Oderus  
Pterinochilus murinus 'usumbara', 'RCF', 'OBT' previously known as P.spinifer (wrongly)
the deeper orange as you have there is the most common form in the UK hobby now, the NCF isnt as much so nowadays so i for one like to keep things separate so both geographical variants can be kept going instead of muddying things up.
 
the colour is vastly variable (as it is in chordatus)
the NCF can range from almost lugardi tan to a yellowy, washed out version of the RCF and the RCF from that to brick red and there is almost every shade in between! lol

from what i've seen it's probably geographically variable (fish breeders term these as subspecies or locale variants and keep them separate)

H.lividum is another that shows these kind of variations, from pale slate grey/blue up to deep vivid blue (almost midnight blue).....in fact most species show colour variation based on where the are found
 
To my understanding
Deep orange/Red = Orange baboon (Usumbara)
Orange = Starburst baboon (Mombassa)
Pale orange/yellow/gold with broken black specles = NCF/TCF
Dark Grey/black = DCF
i thought that the DCF had been since id'd as Pterinochilus leetzi? or has that species been synonymous and taken into the murinus fold?
i was talking to Richard about the 'black' Pterinochilus at the BTS and he was saying it's either leetzi or chordatus, and the odds of it being leetzi in the hobby were next to zero
 
P. murinus RCF: red colour form
Long and short setae red/orange, often sold as P. mamillatus or P. spp. "usambara"
i thought you would have been in the hobby long enough to remember this being imported and sold as P.spinifer (albeit we now know this was wrongly so) from the late 90s till the very early 2000s?

P. murinus DCF: dark colour form
Coloured general darkgrey, partial black. Carapace gold/yellow with dark radial striae - those are not as intensive as P. murinus TCF. Rarely seen and not in the hobby. The abdominal pattern are the same in all colour variations.
check out the description in SCHMIDT, G. E. W. (2002d). Eine neue Pterinochilus-Art aus Sambia (Theraphosidae: Harpactirinae). Tarantulas of the World 71: 3-7. for leetzi

Timo himself (the co-authour of the site you quote) disputes the validation of P.murinus DCF openly on The T Store, and a current discussion on FB with him confirms he hasnt updated the site since 2005, which was before the invalidation of P.murinus DCF