Poecilotheria subfusca 'lowland' and 'highland', what's the difference?
As a vendor who has both Poecilotheria subfusca 'lowland' and 'highland' listed on our website, we constantly get asked about the difference between the two. Here's some information on this topic that we think might be helpful to those who have the same question.
Poecilotheria subfusca (known as 'lowland') is found in the hills around Kandy, the capital of the Central Province in Sri Lanka, at 500-600 m asl. This ‘lowland form’ was previously known as Poecilotheria bara in the hobby and is still erroneously labeled that sometimes despite bara being synonymized with subfusca in Kirk (1996). They are a large arboreal species and can be differentiated from Poecilotheria aff. subfusca 'highland' by several features, including but not limited to their larger body size, longer leg span, paler coloration, and differing carapace and abdominal markings.
Poecilotheria aff. subfusca 'highland' is found in the mountains around Nuwara Eliya in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, at 1,500-1,900+ m asl. This ‘highland form’ was previously known as Poecilotheria subfusca in the hobby before the importation of the ‘lowland form’. They are a large arboreal species, though the smallest of the Poecilotheria, and can be differentiated from Poecilotheria subfusca by their smaller body size, shorter leg span, darker coloration, differing carapace, and abdominal markings, etc.
Unfortunately, the majority worldwide, and probably all in the US nowadays, are most likely of mixed blood, just some worse than others. This can be seen by the fact that none of the hobby stock match wild specimens of either 'form' 100% and seem mixed, though both forms exhibit somewhat overlapping phenotypes in the wild. The line is pretty blurred, and outside of a few collections worldwide, there are likely few pure animals left, but it's still best not to make it worse. There is also a strong chance that they will be reclassified as separate species again, with the ‘lowland form’ remaining subfusca and the ‘highland form’ formally classified as a distinct species. DNA, morphological, geographic, and ecological data suggest they are different species, though no formal publication currently separates them.
Like all Sri Lankan Poecilotheria species, both