What does the systematic history of the Tarantula family tell us about the future of tarantula taxonomy?
Phylogenetics provides fundamental knowledge about species, the units of biodiversity, and how they are classified. Results in this field span the whole of biology and can have important implications for conservation. Here, we review phylogenetic and taxonomic practice in Theraphosidae over the past 260 years. We examine the rate of new species descriptions and survey the contemporary practices used to describe new genera and species. There have been two major waves in Theraphosidae taxonomy, with an explosion in new species descriptions and authorship combinations over the past 60 years. Looking back, between 2010 and 2024, contemporary practice in phylogenetic and taxonomic Theraphosidae has remained largely unchanged, with morphology-based approaches dominating. During this period, only 10% of new species incorporate DNA data or explicitly state the species concept used. Similarly for genera, of the 37 genera described as new species during that period, only 5 were supported as separate and monophyletic by DNA. We highlight the taxonomic transfer of species between Theraphosidae, Barychelidae, and Paratropididae, although due to limited molecular samples of the latter two families, the boundaries between these families remain an important area requiring study. To promote comprehensiveness, we provide a Spanish version of this paper as supplementary material.
