''Acanthophrynus'' is a genus of tailless whipscorpions in the family

Phrynidae Phrynidae is a family of amblypygid arachnida arthropods also known as whip spiders and tailless whip scorpions. Phrynidae species are found in tropical and subtropical regions in North and South America. Some species are subterranean; all are no ...

. There is at least one described species in ''Acanthophrynus'', ''A. coronatus''.

''Acanthophrynus coronatus''

''Acanthophrynus coronatus'' is a tailless whipscorpion, it was first described by Butler in 1873, though it was under the name ''

Phrynus ''Phrynus'' is a genus of whip spiders found in tropical and subtropical regions, mostly in the new world. Appearance Like other species of the order Amblypygi, species of the genus ''Phrynus'' are dorso-ventrally flattened arachnids with elonga ...

coronatus''. It is found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, inhabiting

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tropical forests Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fores ...

, this

whipscorpion Thelyphonida is an arachnid order comprising invertebrates commonly known as whip scorpions or vinegaroons (also spelled vinegarroons and vinegarones). They are often called uropygids in the scientific community based on an alternative name for ...

being sometimes kept as a pet.

Description

This arachnids grow to a leg-span of about 18cm, being about 4cm wide, with a lifespan of around 7 years. They own light red pedipalps, and a light brown - brown

prosoma The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

, the

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma (cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects to a ...

being of the same color with some darker brown stripping. All of the legs are a lighter brown than the

, reaching almost a yellow color. While they lack venomous glands, they do own

stridulating Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mech ...

organs.

Habitat

They inhabit the

, in many states facing the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. This

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

are made between 0 and 1900m

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, though its rare they surpass 1500m. The average annual temperature in this regions are 20 to 29 ºC, with average rainfall between 300mm and 1800mm, this of course depending on the region.

Behavior

This species as all in the

family are nocturnal, remaining mostly in hiding during the day, they are mostly tree dwelling, and will rarely be seen on the ground. They are best kept solitary, although they have some tolerance for those of the same egg sack. Pairs can also be kept together for multiple days, but this of course comes with risks.

References

Amblypygi {{arachnid-stub