Ami (genus)

Ami is a genus of tarantula spiders of South and Central America.

Description

The body lengths of the species range from 17 to 21 mm.

Name

The genus is named after a word in the Tupí language, meaning "spider that does not spin a web". A. caxiuana is named after the type locality, which means "place of many snakes" in Tupí; A. yupanquii is named after the Inca leader Tupac Yupanqui, who unified the agricultural populations of Ecuador; A. bladesi received its name in honor of Panamanian singer and composer Ruben Blades. A. pijaos honors the Pijaos, an ancient culture that populated the region of the type locality. A. amazonica refers to the Colombian amazonic region. A. weinmanni is named after Dirk Weinmann, the collector of the type specimens.

Relationships

Ami seems to more Pseudhapalopus than to other genera of the large subfamily Theraphosinae. It is also similar to the small brownish genera Cyclosternum and Reversopelma.

Species

• Ami amazonica Jiménez & Bertani, 2008 — Colombia
• Ami bladesi Pérez-Miles, Gabriel & Gallon, 2008 — Panama
• Ami caxiuana Pérez-Miles, Miglio & Bonaldo, 2008 — Brazil
• Ami obscura (Ausserer, 1875) — Colombia
• Ami pijaos Jiménez & Bertani, 2008 — Colombia
• Ami weinmanni Pérez-Miles, 2008 — Venezuela
• Ami yupanquii Pérez-Miles, Gabriel & Gallon, 2008 — Ecuador

References

• Pérez-Miles, Fernando; Gabriel, Ray; Miglio, Laura; Bonaldo, Alexandre; Gallon, Richard; Jimenez, Juan Jacobo & Bertani, Rogerio (2008): Ami, a new Theraphosid genus from Central and South America, with the description of six new species (Araneae: Mygalomorphae). Zootaxa 1915: 54-68. Abstract
• Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History.