PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online OPEN ACCESS every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note Range extension of the Gooty Tarantula Poecilotheria metallica (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India Kothandapani Raman, Sivangnanaboopathidoss Vimalraj, Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar, Natesan Balachandran & Abhishek Tomar 26 August 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 10 | Pages: 14373–14376 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5266.11.10.14373-14376 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2019 | 11(10): 14373–14376 Note Range extension of the Gooty Tarantula old world genus Poecilotheria Poecilotheria metallica (Araneae: Simon, 1885 of the subfamily Theraphosidae) in the Eastern Ghats of Poecilotheriinae is the only Tamil Nadu, India genus specifcally arboreal in ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) habit, occurring largely in the dry ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Kothandapani Raman 1 , Sivangnanaboopathidoss deciduous and evergreen forests or PLATINUM Vimalraj 2 , Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar 3 , wooded areas in peninsular India OPEN ACCESS Natesan Balachandran 4 & Abhishek Tomar 5 and Sri Lanka (Siliwal et al. 2013). Spiders of the genus Poecilotheria 1 Indigenious Biodiversity Foundaton, No. 24 Mission Street, are widely known for their large Puducherry 605001, India. 2 No: 65, Second Cross Street, Kurunji Nagar Extension, Lawspet, size, colourful marking within a fatsh carapace Puducherry 605008, India. (Pocock 1900; Smith & Kirk 2002), their potent venom 3 PG and Research Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, (Nanayakkara et al. 2012) and familiarity in the pet A.V.C. College, Mannampandal, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu 609305, India. trade (Siliwal et al. 2013). 4 Ecology Department, French Insttute of Pondicherry, 11, Saint Louis About 14 species have been recognized hitherto Street, Puducherry 605001, India. from the genus Poecilotheria, wherein seven species are 5 District Forest Ofcer, Villupuram Division, Collectorate Master Plan Campus, Villupuram, Tamil Nadu 605602, India. endemic to India (formosa, metallica, miranda, regalis, 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], ruflata, striata, and tgrinawesseli) and fve to Sri Lanka 3 [email protected] (corresponding author), fasciata, ornata, rajaei, smithi, subfusca 4 [email protected], 5 [email protected] ( and ) while two species (hanumavilasumica and vitata) are found in both (World Spider Catalogue 2019). Poecilotheria The family Theraphosidae Thorell, 1869 is metallica Pocock, 1899 is commonly known as the represented by 999 species in 147 genera (World Spider Peacock Parachute Spider or Gooty Tarantula. This Catalogue 2019). The greatest diversity of this family species is endemic to India, and according to the current is found in the tropical regions of the world and some IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the species is species exist in the subtropical and temperate regions categorized as Critcally Endangered, as it is restricted but notably absent in the polar region (Nanayakkara et to a 100km2 highly degraded forest between Nandyal al. 2012). In India, it is represented by six subfamilies: and Giddalur in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh Eumenophorinae, Ischnocolinae, Poecilotheriinae, (Molur et al. 2008). Reginald Innes Pocock (1899) had Selenocosmiinae, Selenogyrinae and Thrigmopoeinae reported its type locality as Gooty on the basis of a single (Pocock 1900; Mirza et al. 2011; Siliwal et al. 2012). female specimen. About 102 years later, Molur et al. Members of the family Theraphosidae are predominantly (2003) found two immature individuals in an extremely terrestrial in habit, dwelling in burrows, beneath the degraded forest between Nandyal and Giddalur in the rocks, and fallen logs (Nanayakkara et al. 2012). The Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. Subsequently, Molur DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5266.11.10.14373-14376 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:28BAB955-F74E-46B2-A479-B2151C1D799C Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #5266 | Received 23 July 2019 | Final received 30 July 2019 | Finally accepted 17 August 2019 Citaton: Raman, K., S. Vimalraj, B.M. Krishnakumar, N. Balachandran & A. Tomar (2019). Range extension of the Gooty Tarantula Poecilotheria metallica (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(10): 14373–14376. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5266.11.10.14373-14376 Copyright: © Raman et al 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the principal chief conservator of forest (HoFF), Tamil Nadu granted permission to do the botanical survey in RFs of Gingee Range; Wildlife Conservaton Trust (SG 2018-19 Phase I), Mumbai for the fnancial support; Prof. Frederic Landy, director and Dr. Raphael Mathevet, head of ecology, French Insttute of Pondicherry for their constant support and encouragement. The corresponding author is grateful to Dr. Brawin Kumar, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for his valuable critques and suggestons, which signifcantly improved the quality of the manuscript. 14373 Range extension of Poecilotheria metallica in the Eastern Ghats Raman et al. Figure 1. Map of southern India illustratng the previous record (yellow dot) of Poecilotheria metallica, present sightng (place holder) and presumed type locality as reported by Pocock (1899) (red circle). Image 1. Habitat of Poecilotheria metallica at Pakkam Malai Reserve Forest, Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu. The photograph was taken during the monsoon when vegetaton is lush. et al. (2003) provided the frst detailed descripton of its Beall’s List 2019). Hitherto, P. metallica has not been habitat. Previous to their record Gooty was considered found in any other parts of India or Sri Lanka. This paper as the existence locality of P. metallica. Pocock (1899) is based on the observatons from Tamil Nadu. The recorded that a single female specimen was collected presence of this threatened theraphosid recorded for from the railway tmber yard in Gooty, however, it could the frst tme outside of its known distributon expands inadvertently have been transported with tmber from its range further south from its confrmed record. the Eastern Ghats (Molur et al. 2008). Presently, this Gingee is a heritage town in the district of Villupuram, species is found only within 100km2 Reserve Forest located in the northeast of Tamil Nadu (Muralidharan & between Nandayal and Giddalur (Molur et al. 2008). An Narasimhan 2012; Vimalraj et al. 2018). Pakkam Malai additonal locaton in Andhra Pradesh is not considered Reserve Forest has been protected as a sacred groove here as it was published in a predatory journal (see (Vimalraj et al. 2018). The average elevaton of this 14374 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2019 | 11(10): 14373–14376 Range extension of Poecilotheria metallica in the Eastern Ghats Raman et al. A © B. Harikrishnan B © S. Vimalraj C © K. Raman Image 2. Dorsal aspect of Poecilotheria metallica in life: A—Adult female showing peculiar metallic luster and orange yellow patches on tbiae | B—Adult female from the cave | C—Adult male from the bat cave. rocky terrain is about 400m and the vegetaton type et al. 2018). ranges from dry thorn scrub to tropical dry deciduous While undertaking a foral survey at Pakkam Malai and tropical dry evergreen forest (Kalaimani 2011; (Image 1) on 09 December 2018, we sighted a huge Balachandran et al. 2015). The annual rainfall is about blue coloured spider restng in a cave. We approached 700mm, and the temperature fuctuates between 300C the specimen closely and photographed it with a Nikon and 360C during the non-monsoon period of the year; D3200 (Image 2). The spider was later identfed as during monsoon season it drops down to 240C (Karthik Poecilotheria metallica described by Pocock (1899) Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org