''Cotztetlana villadai'' is a

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

species in the '' Cotztetlana''

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. It was first described by Julio C. Estrada-Alvarez in 2014. It is found in

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

in Mexico. This

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

is named after Manuel María Villada Peimbert, a Mexican naturalist and founder of a natural history museum that now bears his name.

Characteristics

This tarantula is distinguished from'' Cotztetlana omiltemi'' because of the

spermatheca The spermatheca (pronounced plural: spermathecae ), also called receptaculum seminis (plural: receptacula seminis), is an organ of the female reproductive tract in insects, e.g. ants, bees, some molluscs, oligochaeta worms and certain other ...

, the receptors having converging borders. Its coloration is completely dark brown, with legs of brownish orange hairs, in the majority of the legs, its

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 ...

is darker, with brownish orange hairs.

Habitat

This species is found in the

Temascalcingo Temascalcingo is one of 125 municipalities in the State of Mexico, Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of Temascalcingo de José María Velasco. It is located in the northeast of the state. The temazcal was very common in Temascalcingo. The n ...

. The majority of this territory is around 2,600 m

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 ...

, the average temperature being 15.4ºC, the annual rainfall being around 874.6 mm. In this regions

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

s and cedars are common trees, common plants being agave, chayote and huizache.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27505600 Theraphosidae Spiders described in 2014 Spiders of Mexico Spiders of North America