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South-East Asia and Australia are home to numerous species of the tarantula subfamily Selenocosmiinae (Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae). A lyra on the maxillae and strikers on the chelicerae are diagnostic of this subfamily of spiders, which enables them to stridulate and make a “hissing” sound. Some Phlogiellus species may have retained their strikers while secondary losing their lyra. Only a small number of studies have used genetic data from many taxa within the subfamily to test for monophyly. Selenocosmiinae is most closely linked to the Indian Thrigmopoeinae, according to this research, which also indicated that taxa formerly listed in this subfamily were actually their own independent subfamily (Poecilotheria). There are currently 11 genera in the Selenocosmiinae subfamily as of 2023.

Additional blog posts

• 
  Goliath Birdeater Spider – Theraphosa blondi
  by Martin
• 
  Xenesthis sp. blue – Colombian Mountain Xenesthis
  by Martin

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Additional links & literature reference

• Overview of Selenocosmiinae at Tarantupedia / https://www.tarantupedia.com/selenocosmiinae

• West RC, Nunn SC, Hogg S (2012) A new tarantula genus, Psednocnemis, from West Malaysia (Araneae: Theraphosidae), with cladistic analyses and biogeography of Selenocosmiinae Simon 1889. Zootaxa 3299 1 43;

• Lüddecke, Tim; Krehenwinkel, Henrik; Canning, Gregory; Glaw, Frank; Longhorn, Stuart J.; Tänzler, René; Wendt, Ingo; Vences, Miguel (2018-02-01). “Discovering the silk road: Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data resolve the phylogenetic relationships among theraphosid spider subfamilies”. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 119: 63–70. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.10.015. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 29104141.

• Foley, Saoirse; Lüddecke, Tim; Cheng, Dong-Qiang; Krehenwinkel, Henrik; Künzel, Sven; Longhorn, Stuart J.; Wendt, Ingo; von Wirth, Volker; Tänzler, Rene; Vences, Miguel; Piel, William H. (2019-11-01). “Tarantula phylogenomics: A robust phylogeny of deep theraphosid clades inferred from transcriptome data sheds light on the prickly issue of urticating setae evolution”. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 140: 106573
  
• Gabriel, R. & Sherwood, D. (2019a). A new genus and species of theraphosid spider from Sarawak, Borneo (Araneae: Theraphosidae). Journal of the British Tarantula Society 34(1): 19-34.
  
• Nunn, S. C., West, R. C. & Wirth, V. von (2016). A revision of the selenocosmiine tarantula genus Phlogiellus Pocock 1897 (Araneae: Theraphosidae), with description of 4 new species. International Journal of Zoology 2016(9895234): 1-54. doi:10.1155/2016/9895234
  

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