Wats the diffrence between T. apophysis and T. blondi

[CHOPCHOP!!]

I have T.Apothysis and im looking to get T.Blondi but when fully grown whats the diffrence between the two? comparison pictures would be a bonus if posible....please?

[Jmugleston]

There are a bunch of threads covering this already, so I'll be brief and mention some characters as well as some notable color differences:
T. apophysis:
Much more "hair" covering the legs especially the underside
Generally a pinkish/reddish hue.
Mature males with tibial apophyses
Dark spot on the opisthosoma
tibia uniform width
tibia of variable lengths
carapace more elongate
slings with pink tarsi

T. blondi
Less "hair" than T. apophysis
Lacks the Reddish hairs seen on the other two Theraphosa sp.
Distal portion of the tibial wider
males lack tibial apophyses
round carapace
slings with brown tarsi
setae on patella

T. sp. "blondi" (The more common goliath in the pet trade also sold as T. blondi, T. apophysis, and T. sp. "burgundy")
Thickened femurs like T. blondi
black spot like T. apophysis
ultimate males lack tibial spurs
reddish hairs on fresh molts
carapace is round
slings with pink tarsi
no setae on patella

Here's a picture showing all three:


The leftmost spider is T. sp. "blondi", the middle T. blondi (the real T. blondi), and the right is T. aphphysis. All three are adult or subadults.
Sadly, most the T. apophysis I've seen for sale lately have been the Guyana T. sp. "blondi" so unless you're very confident in your source, you may have a species other than T. apophysis.

[xhexdx]

Well, first of all, it's T. apophysis, and the species isn't capitalized (i.e. T. blondi, not T. Blondi).

Other than that, true blondi don't have pink feet, apophysis do. There are others but I'm not a big fan of the Theraphosa genus, so I'll pass.

Edit: Joey beat me to the punch!

[JC]

Here is a thread on the subject.

[Terry D]

ChopChop, Jmugleston's reply pretty much covered everything about the 3 spp well. Mature males of T apophysis have a WICKED purple color as well- see it in in AB thread Theraphosa sp.- which may have already been posted. My bad if so as I didn't check the link

Cheers,

Terry

[pouchedrat]

Yeah seriously, those purple males are amazing looking!

[RichRollin]

Once you've seen a T. apophyisis side by side with a blondi, or "sp. burgundy", it's fairly easy IMO to tell the apophysis apart from the other two. Generally hairier and more reddish in color, with a more elongate carapace and appearance in general.

Overall, they seem "skinnier" than the other two.

[Merfolk]

Does mugleston imply that most of what we have is actually the burgundy and normal blondis are rare...

I am not sure I understood perfectly.

[Terry D]

Does mugleston imply that most of what we have is actually the burgundy and normal blondis are rare...

I am not sure I understood perfectly.

From what I gather, most of the recent w/c imports have been of Theraphosa sp. "burgundy"- However, I'm personally not inferring that it is the most common sp in the hobby overall. I wouldn't know the answer to that one. Terry

[Jmugleston]

Does mugleston imply that most of what we have is actually the burgundy and normal blondis are rare...

I am not sure I understood perfectly.

From what I gather, most of the recent w/c imports have been of Theraphosa sp. "burgundy"- However, I'm personally not inferring that it is the most common sp in the hobby overall. I wouldn't know the answer to that one. Terry

That's exactly what I'm saying about the T. "blondi" in the US hobby. Most the imports coming in the last few years were T. sp. from Guyana. This is a different spider than the T. blondi that that many of us kept in the 90s and possibly before. I was not in the hobby before then so I cannot speak for earlier years. If you want an informal glance at what I'm talking about, look at the T. blondi pictures in the forums and compare it to the real T. blondi pictures in the publications from the 90s. Many of those posted online have the telltale bald patella of T. sp. Most the real T. blondi I see now are older individuals that keepers have had for some time.

To make matters worse, I fear that much of the T. blondi and T. apophysis confusion is because of this species. If you see the adults side by side as in the picture above, it is hard to mistake one for the other. But the mistakes continue with so many slings being sold as T. apophysis based solely on the color of their tarsi. I've seen (and sadly bought) a number of supposed T. apophysis only to have T. sp. arrive. I can't be too upset at the sellers as until a few months ago I also was quite skeptical of the supposed third Theraphosa species. Look at it this way: You buy a large WC spider that was sold as T. blondi (actually T. sp. "Guyana" or "burgundy"). Then you get a deal on a T. apophysis (T. sp. "Guyana" or "Burgundy") but the pink tarsi tell you it is T. apophysis so you don't question it. Problem is the sling grows up and looks just like your T. "blondi." Now you're stuck trying to differentiate between two members of the same species sold under two different though both erroneous names. It gets even better. Now extrapolate this same problem throughout most the genera we keep and you can quickly see why taxonomists don't typically like hobbyists. We put names into use incorrectly (I'm guilty with this as well as I've keyed out only a few of my species. Even those identifications are sometimes based on "iffy" locality data).


In short, all other arguments for other threads aside, yes, most T. "blondi" being traded now in the hobby are of the same species that is being sold as T. sp. "Burgundy".