Omothymus Spider Size
Peninsular Malaysia is home to a species of spider of the Theraphosidae (tarantulas) family known as the Malaysian earthtiger tarantula, or Omothymus schioedtei. Another name for it is Cyriopagopus schioedtei.
Description
A huge and vibrant arboreal tarantula belonging to the subfamily Ornithoctoninae is called Omothymus schioedtei. With a limb span of 22 cm and a carapace length of more than 3 cm, it is a very big spider. A definite sexual dimorphism exists. The legs of the male are striated in a light yellow color. The male has long, slender legs and a blunt tibial apophysis. Epigynal fusillae can be used to quickly sex subadult males, who also get progressively greener with each molt until they reach maturity. The ventral colour, which is green for subadult males and black for subadult females, makes this very obvious.
Taxonomy
Tamerlan Thorell initially described Omothymus schioedtei, the type species of his brand-new genus Omothymus, in 1891. Omothymus and Cyriopagopus were synonymized in 1903 by Eugène Simon, changing Omothymus schioedtei to Cyriopagopus schioedtei.
As of March 2017, it was unknown how a few East Asian spider genera related to one another. In 2015, A. M. Smith and M. A. Jacobi changed the species’ name back to Omothymus schioedtei on the grounds that, in contrast to C. schioedtei, the type species of the genus Cyriopagopus, C. paganus, was not different from the genus Haplopelma. They also equated Cyriopagopus with Haplopelma.
Distribution and habitat
In Malaysia, the species is present. It resides in hollow trees many meters up in primary lowland and foothill monsoon forests. Younger animals can be discovered hiding beneath loose bark, in rock crevices, and in man-made structures like bridges and boardwalks, while adult females are almost exclusively found in huge old trees.
