''Euphrictus squamosus'' 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 ...

(family Theraphosidae) in the Selenogyrinae subfamily. It is native to the

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Pierre Benoit in 1965 as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''Zophopelma squamosa'', of a new genus ''Zophopelma'', placed in the family

Barychelidae Barychelidae, also known as brushed trapdoor spiders, is a spider family with about 300 species in 42 genera. Most spiders in this family build trapdoor burrows. For example, the long ''Sipalolasma'' builds its burrow in rotted wood, with a hinge ...

. After analysing its features,

Robert J. Raven Robert John Raven is an Australian arachnologist, being the Head of Terrestrial Biodiversity and the Senior Curator (Arachnida) at the Queensland Museum. Dr Raven has described many species of spider in Australia and elsewhere, and is spider bite ...

considered the species to belong to the family Theraphosidae rather than Barychelidae, and also transferred it to the genus ''Euphrictus'' as ''E. squamosus''. The transfer has been accepted by most sources, but Andrew M. Smith in 1990, although agreeing with the changed family placement, questioned Raven's view that ''Zophopelma'' and ''Euphrictus'' are synonymous.

Characteristics

''Euphrictus squamosus'' is characterized by yellow-white scales on its cephalothorax, for both genders. It has a slightly shorter embolus than '' Euphrictus spinosus''. It is 11.4 mm long and reddish-brown in colour.

References

Theraphosidae Spiders described in 1965 Spiders of Africa {{Theraphosidae-stub