Kingdom Animalia Subphylum Chelicerata Order Araneae Rank Species | Phylum Arthropoda Class Arachnida Infraorder Mygalomorphae | |
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Similar Aphonopelma, Aphonopelma anax, Aphonopelma saguaro, Aphonopelma xwalxwal, Aphonopelma iodius | ||
Aphonopelma johnnycashi is a species of tarantula found in 2015 near Folsom Prison in California, and named after Johnny Cash, whose song, "Folsom Prison Blues", made it famous. Mature males are generally black, and the country music singer was also known as "The Man in Black".
Natural history
This spider can be up to 6 inches (15 cm) long, the males black and females dark brown. Like most North American tarantulas, they are relatively harmless to humans, unlikely to bite and with venom only mildly irritating.
The new categorization of this spider is part of an effort to more carefully catalog American tarantula species. For decades there has been a suspicion that there are more species than identified, but that they are similar enough to be overlooked. The new effort has broken them down according to behavior and observable traits, though there has not been genetic testing done to truly ascertain where the species lines are drawn.
