Davus aff. pentaloris (Guatemalan tiger rump tarantula)

This group was once believed to be a single, highly variable species found across North and Central America, including southern Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, and Chiapas), Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. However, the recent taxonomic revision by Candia-Ramírez, D. T. & Francke, O. F. (2021) suggests that these animals instead constitute a species complex derived from 12 previously undescribed candidate species in addition to Davus pentaloris senso stricto, with true Davus pentaloris being found only in Guatemala. The hobby specimens examined in the study were closest to one of the new candidate species. However, the genetic distances between the hobby specimens and the closest candidate species, although less than the interspecific genetic distances between other candidate species, were enough to be considered a deep conspecific lineage rather than them belonging solely to the new candidate species. Due to a lack of locality data and low sampling, there was insufficient evidence to confirm the evolutionary independence or the guaranteed placement of hobby specimens involved in the study as one of the candidate species. Since this group is widely available, commonly bred, and was once considered all the same species, this could indicate that hobby specimens are derived from generations of unintentional hybridization between candidate species.