Stromatopelma is a genus of African tarantulas that was first described by Ferdinand Anton Franz Karsch in 1881. They are renowned for their potent venom that uses stromatoxin peptides to induce medically significant effects.
Species
it contains five species and one subspecies, found in Africa: Stromatopelma batesi (Pocock, 1902) – Cameroon, Congo Stromatopelma calceatum (Fabricius, 1793) (type) – West Africa Stromatopelma c. griseipes (Pocock, 1897) – West Africa Stromatopelma fumigatum (Pocock, 1900) – Equatorial Guinea (Mbini) Stromatopelma pachypoda (Strand, 1908) – Cameroon Stromatopelma satanas (Berland, 1917) – Gabon, Congo
In synonymy: Stromatopelma alicapillatum Karsch, 1881 = Stromatopelma calceatum Stromatopelma aussereri (Becker, 1879) = Stromatopelma calceatum Stromatopelma brachypoda (Pocock, 1897) = Stromatopelma calceatum Stromatopelma horrida (Thorell, 1899) = Stromatopelma calceatum Stromatopelma straeleni (Roewer, 1953) = Stromatopelma batesi