chondro3000 wrote:

Hi the quetion about the Indigious spider is they only protect the genus not species there use to be 5 genuses in south africa Harpactira, Harpactirella, Ceratogyrus, Pterinochilus, Brachynopus but now which was Pterinochilus junodi is now Augacephalus junodi, I use to work very closely with Gauteng Nature conservation and still do work with Dr Ansie Dippenaar at the ARC I still do collect spiders for her I would say they should keep protecting the genus and keep it illegal to keep P. murinus OBT without a permit, and if you keep Augacephalus junodi with out a permit they are still going to nail you on the old genus as the natcon law was updated in 2002, the renaming of A. junodi was done after wards, you just need a permit for 4 of the genuses Harpactira, Harpactirella, Ceratogyrus, Pterinochilus, and not for Brachynopus.

Brachynopus is only indemic to south africa and they reach to a max of 4cm body size in there is one called Brachynopus pretoriae very nice specimen one of my favorites

The law has been changed, so all indigenous genera from sa are protected including Augacephalus and the rest.
Not to be a pain, but its important that people know. The plural of genus is genera.

I forwarded chondro3000's post for comment to P Gildenhuys - this was the reply ...

There are some flaws in his story:

The name is Brachionopus pretoriae, and the male has never been described, so I don't see how his specimens were identified as Brachionopus pretoriae. The specimens in the Transvaal museum are Harpactirella.

Ansie Dippenaar is not a theraphosid specialist. So basically, his favourite species is illegal to keep

Likewise, if Augacephalus junodi is illegal because it falls under Pterinochilus, then so would Trichognathella schoenlandi and all Idiothele spp., because they were also originally described as Pterinochilus...

Anyway...the bottom line is that nature conservation will confiscate, and/or fine anyone in possession of ANY...lets repeat that word...ANY South African theraphosid...and yes that would include Brachionopus spp. even though the genus is borderline barychelidae.

For now, it is still a theraphosid and will remain there until a revision is done and proven otherwise

@ The Animal: Yes I've got a pic of it somewhere I'll post a soon as I find it. @ Rayman: Unless the laws changed since I last spoke to the "green scorpions" Brachionopus is still not protected. But it's not easy to find and I will not enclose any info on how to collect them, there is a number of references to Brachionopus pretoriae on the research outing on the net some were found in Pietersburg nature reserve and a couple of other places as well. ps sorry for the mistake english is my second language. Check these links. www.nylsvley.co.za/Documents/SpidersScorpions.pdf www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?http://www....3&script=sci_arttext

:huh: who asked for info how to collect them?

And its Brachionopus not Brachynopus unless you have somehow hybridized the Brachypelma and Brachionopus? :laugh:

@chondro. I think patrick pretty much covered it. All local Theraphosids are illegal. Suprised you are trying to argue against this with your high "connections" though.

+1 Rayman.

Thank you for the update.

TH