How Many Tarantula Species Are There?
How many Tarantula there are exactly, is still a mystery to us.
Every year, new tarantula species are discovered. And so the total number keeps growing.
Scientists are still trying to figure out how many tarantula species there are in the world. A couple of years ago, it was estimated that there were about 800 different tarantula species.
Today, however, we already know about the existence of exactly 999 species of tarantulas (Theraphosidae) worldwide.
These 999 species of tarantulas are subdivided among 147 different Genera.
But these are just the tarantula species that we know off. How many there really are, is anyone’s guess.
To illustrate this point, in 2019 a completely new and outlandish Tarantula species got discovered in the Angolan desert.
It’s the Ceratogyrus attonitifer.
Like any other Ceratogryus, it has a ‘horn’ on its back, which is what makes it so otherworldly. This feat is exclusive to the Ceratogryus genus.
But the Ceratogryus attonitifer is not the only tarantula species that was recently discovered.
The year before, in 2018, National Geographic shared the news with the world that a new high-altitude tarantula has been discovered in the Peruvian Andes, namely the Hapalotremus albipes.
And so it has been the case that several species of tarantula have been discovered nearly every year for the last decade or so.
In 2017 the Avicularia lynnae was discovered amongst 2 other tarantula species. In 2016 a tarantula with a legendary name, the Aphonopelma johnnycashi, was first sighted, just like 13 other new tarantula species.
As you can see, the rate of discovery is quite quick. It is interesting to see that while what appears to be a mass extinction is taking place, we still get to discover new species every year. The world is truly larger than one may be enticed to believe.
So while we currently know only of just short of a thousand different tarantula species, there may very well be two thousand of these wonderful eight-legged creatures roaming the earth. We just have to keep looking for now!
How many different kinds of tarantula species are there?
While we currently know of 999 different tarantula species, these species are in turn divided in different kinds themselves.
We are talking about division by Genus and there are currently 147 different genera of tarantulas discovered.
