Brachypelma albiceps

Females of Brachypelma albiceps have a body length of about 65 mm. The fourth leg is longest at about 60 mm. The carapace is covered with fine hair; its apparent color depends on the illumination, varying from sandy grey through to rose or yellow. The pedipalps and the first two pairs of legs may be lighter than the last two pairs of legs. The abdomen is dark with bright red longish hairs (setae). The spermatheca has two rounded seminal receptacles.

Brachypelma albiceps has a somewhat tangled taxonomic history. In 1897, F. O. Pickard-Cambridge described the species Eurypelma pallidum (now Aphonopelma pallidum) on the basis of two males collected in Chihuahua, Mexico. He assumed that two female specimens, collected independently in Guerrero, belonged to the same species. In 1903, R. I. Pocock used the new name Brachypelma albiceps for these two females. He did not give a full description, merely saying in a footnote that the name was for the females from Guerrero that Pickard-Cambridge had doubtfully assigned to the same species as the males. Alexander Petrunkevitch in 1939 and Carl Roewer in 1942 restored Pickard-Cambridge's original name, treating albiceps in this context as a junior synonym of pallidum. After studying the original specimens (which neither Petrunkevitch nor Roewer had done), Andrew Smith in 1995 reinstated Pocock's distinction, recognizing the females as a separate species, which, however, he placed in the genus Aphonopelma rather than Brachypelma.

In 1997, Günter Schmidt described a new species, Brachypelmides ruhnaui from both sexes, and in 2004, transferred Pocock's Brachypelma albiceps to Brachypelmides. In 2005, Arturo Locht et al. restored Smith's Aphonopelma albiceps to its current genus Brachypelma and also synonymized Schmidt's Brachypelmides ruhnaui.

Brachypelma albiceps is endemic to the central highlands of Mexico, especially in Guerrero and south of Morelos. In the wild, they build long burrows, typically under large rocks, but may inhabit nests abandoned by rodents or other animals. They are most active at night and dusk.

In 1994, all Brachypelma species were placed on CITES Appendix II, thus restricting trade. Nevertheless, large numbers of tarantulas caught in the wild continue to be smuggled out of Mexico, including species of Brachypelma.

Their diet typically includes crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and cockroaches. In captivity, live food is typically required, such as moths, mealworms and pinky mice, as dead food may be ignored.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

Females lay cocoons containing roughly 500 (up to 900) eggs two months after mating. Spiderlings hatch 8–10 weeks later.

B. albiceps is commonly available at pet stores. Lighting is not needed, as these spiders naturally prefer darkness.

{{Reflist|refs=

{{Cite web |title=Brachypelma smithi (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897): Documents |website=Species+ |publisher=UNEP-WCMC & CITES Secretariat |url=https://speciesplus.net/#/taxon_concepts/6716/documents |accessdate=2017-09-22 }}

{{Cite journal |last1=Locht |first1=A. |last2=Medina |first2=F. |last3=Rojo |first3=R. |last4=Vázquez |first4=I. |date=2005 |title=Una nueva especie de tarántula del género Aphonopelma Pocock 1901 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae) de México con notas sobre el género Brachypelma Simon 1891 |journal=Boletín de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa |volume=37 |pages=105–108 |language=es |name-list-style=amp }}

{{Cite journal |last1=Mendoza |first1=J. |last2=Francke |first2=O. |date=2017 |title=Systematic revision of Brachypelma red-kneed tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae), and the use of DNA barcodes to assist in the identification and conservation of CITES-listed species |journal=Invertebrate Systematics |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=157–179 |doi=10.1071/IS16023 |s2cid=89587966 |name-list-style=amp }}

{{Cite book |last1=Peters |first1=Heinz-Josef |date=2003 |contribution=Aphonopelma albiceps Pocock, 1903 |title=Amerika's Vogelspinnen |publication-place=Wegberg |publisher=H.-J. Peters |series=Tarantulas of the World |language=de |isbn=978-3-933443-06-9 |pages=32–33 }}

{{Cite book |last1=Pickard-Cambridge |first1=F.O. |date=1897 |title=Arachnida - Araneida and Opiliones, vol. 2 |contribution=Eurypelma pallidum, sp. n. |page=21 |publication-place=London |series=Biologia Centrali-Americana }}

{{Cite journal |last1=Pocock |first1=R. I. |date=1903 |title=On some genera and species of South-American Aviculariidae |journal=Annals and Magazine of Natural History |series=Series 7 |volume=11 |issue=61 |pages=81–115 |doi=10.1080/00222930308678729|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430015 }}

{{Cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=G. |date=1997 |title=Eine zweite Brachypelmides-Art aus Mexiko: Brachypelmides ruhnaui n. sp. (Arachnida: Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae) |journal=Entomologische Zeitschrift, Frankfurt a.M. |volume=107 |pages=205–208 |language=de}}

{{Cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=G. |date=2004 |title=Die Gattung Brachypelmides Schmidt & Krause, 1994 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae) |journal=Tarantulas of the World |volume=99 |pages=4–5 |language=de}}

{{Citation |last1=Smith |first1=Andrew M. |date=1994 |title=Tarantula Spiders: Tarantulas of the U.S.A. and Mexico |publication-place=London |publisher=Fitzgerald Publishing |isbn=978-0-9510939-9-3 }} p. 136.

{{cite web |title=Taxon details Brachypelma albiceps Pocock, 1903 |work=World Spider Catalog |publisher=Natural History Museum Bern |url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/37244 |accessdate=2017-09-29 }}

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• {{Cite web |last1=Hijmensen |first1=Eddy |date=2011 |title=Brachypelma albiceps |url=http://mantid.nl/tarantula/Albiceps.html |accessdate=2017-10-05 |website=mantid.nl }} – photographs taken in the wild

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Category:Theraphosidae

Category:Endemic spiders of Mexico

Category:Spiders described in 1903