''Acanthophrynus'' is a genus of tailless whipscorpion in the family

Phrynidae Phrynidae is a Family (biology), family of amblypygid chelicerata, arachnida arthropods also known as whip spiders and tailless whip scorpions. Phrynidae species are found in tropics, tropical and subtropics, subtropical regions in North and Sout ...

containing a single species, ''Acanthophrynus coronatus''. This species is sometimes kept as a pet.

Taxonomy

''Acanthophrynus coronatus'' was first described by

Arthur Gardiner Butler Arthur Gardiner Butler F.L.S., F.Z.S. (27 June 1844 – 28 May 1925) was an English entomologist, arachnologist and ornithologist. He worked at the British Museum on the taxonomy of birds, insects, and spiders. Biography Arthur Gardiner B ...

in 1873 under the name ''

Phrynus ''Phrynus'' is a genus of whip spiders found in tropical and subtropical regions, mostly in the new world. Appearance Like other species of the order Amblypygi, species of the genus ''Phrynus'' are dorso-ventrally flattened arachnids with elonga ...

coronatus''. A new genus was later described for the species by Kraepelin in 1899. Genetic comparison of populations of ''A. coronatus'' suggests that the species may actually represent more than one clade, with genetic divergence equivalent to that between different species in other genera.

Description

This tailless whipscorpion grows to a leg-span of about 18 cm, being about 4 cm wide, with a lifespan of around 7 years. They have light red pedipalps, and a light brown to brown

prosoma The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

, the

opisthosoma The opisthosoma is the posterior part of the body in some arthropods, behind the prosoma ( cephalothorax). It is a distinctive feature of the subphylum Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs and others). Although it is similar in most respects ...

being of the same color with some darker brown stripping. All of the legs are a lighter brown than the

, reaching almost a yellow color. While they lack venomous glands, they do own

stridulating Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mech ...

organs.

Distribution and habitat

''Acanthophrynus coronatus'' is found in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, inhabiting

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tropical forest Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...

s of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

coastal region from southern Sonora to Oaxaca, including Baja California, at elevations between 0 and 1900m

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, though its rare they surpass 1500m. The average annual temperature in this regions are 20 to 29 °C, with average rainfall between 300mm and 1800mm, this of course depending on the region.

Behavior

This species, like all in the family

, is nocturnal, remaining mostly in hiding during the day; they are mostly tree dwelling, and will rarely be seen on the ground. When kept as pets, they are best kept solitary, although they have some tolerance for those of the same egg sack. Pairs can also be kept together for multiple days, but this of course comes with risks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18094179, from2=Q2822575 Amblypygi Monotypic arachnid genera