D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
36
ANARTIA
Publicación del Museo de Biología de la Universidad del Zulia
ISSN 1315-642X (impresa) / ISSN 2665-0347 (digital)
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10429585 / Anartia, 36 (junio 2023): 36-50
Leveraging citizen science data to preliminarily infer the
distribution and habitat associations of the Venezuelan endemic
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907)
(Araneae: eraphosidae)
Aprovechando datos de ciencia ciudadana para inferir preliminarmente la
distribución y las asociaciones de hábitat de la especie endémica venezolana
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907) (Araneae: eraphosidae)
Danniella Sherwood1,2,* & Rafael Gianni-Zurita3
1Arachnology Research Association, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
2Fundación Ariguanabo, 4111, Calle 58, e/ave. 41 y ave. 43, San Antonio de los Baños, Proincia Artemisa c.p. 18100, Cuba
3Proita A.C. Calle La Joya con avenida Libertador, edicio Unidad Técnica del Este, piso 10, ocina 29-30, urbanización Chacao,
municipio Chacao, ZP 1060, Caracas, Venezuela
* Correspondence: danni.sherwood@hotmail.com
(Received: 24-08-2023 / Accepted: 08-11-2023 / On line: 24-12-2023)
ABSTRACT
e theraphosid Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907), known as the Green Bottle Blue Tarantula worldwide,
but in Venezuela under the common name Tarántula Azul de Paraguaná, is a charismatic species endemic to Venezuela.
Hitherto, almost all information known about this species comes from data gathered in captivity. rough utilizing veri-
ed citizen science data from the website iNaturalist, we discuss the biogeographical signicance of these preliminary data
for showing the in situ distribution and habitat associations of this iconic spider, including a notable record from inland
Venezuela in the state of Lara.
Keywords: biogeography, citizen science, ecology, iNaturalist, species occurrence.
RESUMEN
La araña terafósida Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907), conocida en Venezuela como Tarántula Azul de Para-
guaná, es una especie carismática endémica de Venezuela. Hasta el momento, casi toda la información conocida sobre esta
especie proviene de datos recopilados en cautiverio. Al utilizar datos cientícos depositados por ciudadanos en la base de
datos iNaturalist, reconocemos la importancia biogeográca de estos registros preliminares para mostrar la distribución in
situ y las asociaciones de hábitat de esta icónica araña, incluyendo uno notable del interior de Venezuela en el estado Lara.
Palabras clave: biogeografía, ciencia ciudadana, ecología, iNaturalist, presencia de especie.
der Catalog 2023). is unique species has been assessed as
Endangered in the Red Book of Venezuelan Fauna (Col-
menares 2015). Since its original description in the genus
Eurypelma C. L. Koch, 1842 from “Venezuela, Paraguara
[sic]” by Strand (1907) [the syntype male and female are
INTRODUCTION
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907) is a large
and colourful spider belonging to the family eraphosi-
dae orell, 1869, and is endemic to Venezuela (World Spi-
New insights on Chromatopelma
37
lost, destroyed during WWII bombing campaigns (see
World Spider Catalog, 2023)], this species endured several
generic transfers in the Twentieth Century.
Petrunkevitch (1939) transferred this species to the
newly-created genus Delopelma Petrunkevitch, 1939 but
gave no specic reasons for this new combination. e
synonymy of Delopelma with the enigmatic Rhechostica
Simon, 1892 was proposed by Raven (1985). is was one
of several genera questionably synonymised with Rhechos-
tica by Raven (1985), with one more prominent genus –
Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901– being the catalyst that led to
a suppression of the name Rhechostica by the International
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1991),
which was welcomed by the arachnological community.
Schmidt (1995) transferred Aphonopelma cyaneopube-
scens, created indirectly by the validation of Aphonopelma
over Rhechostica, to the newly-created Chromatopelma
Schmidt, 1995 where it has since remained. Redescrip-
tions of the male and depictions of the female spermathe-
cae came at the end of the rst millennium and the rst
years of the second millennium (Schmidt & Herzig 1997,
Vol. 1999, Schmidt 2000, 2003) based entirely on material
from the pet trade. Most recently, the ontogenetic colour
change found in C. cyaneopubescens, a striking aspect of its
life history, was discussed by Gabriel & Sherwood (2019)
based on reared captive-bred specimens. Despite being dis-
cussed by many works, a satisfactory modern taxonomic
redescription of the male and full description of the female
has been lacking. is may be due to the ease of recognis-
ing this species based on habitus (Fig. 1), in contrast to
many theraphosids, which require careful examination of
the genitalia (Sherwood 2020).
Following the original description by Strand (1907)
which indicated this species was distributed from the
unclear locality “Venezuela: Paraguara [sic]” many subse-
quent works only referred to the spider as coming from an
unspecied or general locality in Venezuela. Petrunkev-
itch (1939) simply states “Venezuela”. Schmidt (1995)
and Schmidt & Herzig (1997)1 give no detail on distribu-
tion despite the former work describing a new genus to
house this species and the latter describing the male for
the rst time. Schmidt (1997) states the distribution of
C. cyaneopubescens as “Venezuela” without precise locality.
Peters (2000)2 assumes that C. cyaneopubescens is from the
1 Schmidt frequently used the incorrect subsequent spelling “cyanopu-
bescens” in his works.
2 It is important to note that much of the information contained in the
self-published hobbyist books by Peters (2000, 2003) are considered
erroneous and/or dubious by many arachnologists, including the se-
nior author of the present contribution.
Figure 1. A. Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907)
adult male. Photo courtesy of and © Andy J. Boyce. Licenced
under Creative Common License Attribution-NonCommercial
4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). See also: https://www.
inaturalist.org/observations/14470887. B. Chromatopelma cya-
neopubescens (Strand, 1907), adult female. Photo courtesy of
and © Pedro D. Vernet P. Licenced under Creative Common
License Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC
BY-NC 4.0). See also: https://www.inaturalist.org/observa-
tions/52260208. C. Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand,
1907), large juvenile. Photo courtesy of and © Pedro D. Vernet
P. Licenced under Creative Common License Attribution-
Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). See also:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52270529
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
38
Venezuelan Amazon, an opinion also apparently shared
by Schmidt at the time although he did not publish this
(Jorge M. González pers. comm.). However, he also in-
dicates the Península de Paraguaná in red on a map, thus
providing the rst indication this species occurred there.
Peters (2003) also gives a distribution from “North Ven-
ezuela”, including the Amazonian region, referencing parts
of the Essequibo Territory and Brazil. Nonetheless, like his
previous work, he also provides a map marking the Penín-
sula de Paraguaná as a point of distribution for this species.
It is important to note that even though he shows a Ven-
ezuelan map and points to the Península de Paraguaná,
both works do not mention it specically in their texts.
Klaas (2003) provides photos of this species and its
habitat, and its retreats in Península de Paraguaná, as well
as general comments on its ecology, but as for locality he
only indicates that it is found in “Northern Venezuela”.
e precise location of the in situ observations and photo-
graphs –which we now know were made in the Península
de Paraguaná (Jorge M. González pers. comm.)– were ob-
scured as “Northern Venezuela” by Klaas as he knew the
book would be read by collectors and wanted to deter
them from knowing the location of specimens or damag-
ing the fragile habitat (Jorge M. González pers. comm.).
Years later, Colmenares (2015) explicitly notes that C.
cyaneopubescens is endemic to the Península de Paraguaná.
us, it is clear that Strand’s type locality “Paraguara [sic]”
is simply a misspelling of Paraguaná.
Ecological data was unknown until Klaas (2003) who
provided details of the habitat and semi-arboreal lifestyle
of this species (see above). Colmenares (2015) also gives
more updated ecological information from the Penín-
sula de Paraguaná. Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens has a
clear preference for making retreats in holes on trees or
fallen logs, and in crevices of bark (Klaas 2003, Jorge M.
González pers. comm.).
e Península de Paraguaná and surrounding parts of
the mainland have many unique ora and fauna elements
(Rodríguez et al. 2015). Indeed, it is biogeographically dis-
tinct as it has its own ecoregion: the Paraguaná xeric scrub
ecoregion (per Dinerstein et al. 2017) which covers the en-
tirety of the Península de Paraguaná, plus some extended
habitat on the mainland of northwest Venezuela, extend-
ing into the foothills of the Venezuelan Andes (Dinerstein
et al. 2017). Outside Venezuela, this ecoregion also covers
the south Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Cu-
raçao.
e online database iNaturalist is an important plat-
form for citizen scientists, who provide observation data
that can be assessed by specialist researchers. rough the
two community projects ‘Arañas de Venezuela Araneae
(registros ‘Grado de investigación’)’ (Gianni 2023a) and
‘Arañas de Venezuela Araneae (registros Ni-Casuales)’
(Gianni 2023b), the senior author (DS) has been able to
evaluate theraphosid records from across Venezuela. Since
this includes a small but important dataset relating to C.
cyaneopubescens, we present that data here.
In this work, utilising Research Grade3 records from
citizen scientists that we have assessed, we provide a much-
needed preliminary update on the known distribution to
include several new areas including the state of Lara, and
habitat associations of C. cyaneopubescens and discuss con-
tinuing knowledge gaps that could be addressed by future
researchers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Unlike many theraphosid spiders, Chromatopelma
cyaneopubescens is readily distinguished by habitus at all
life stages from spiderling (see Gabriel & Sherwood 2019)
to large juveniles/subadults (Fig. 1C) to adult male/fe-
male (Figs. 1A, 1B, respectively) based on colouration
of the carapace, legs, and opisthosoma. erefore, we
examined two datasets (Gianni 2023a,b) from iNatural-
ist (California Academy of Sciences and National Geo-
graphic Society, 2023) exploring records of Venezuelan
theraphosids and verifying identications of specimens of
C. cyaneopubescens. ese veried records were then used
for analyses. e general map of Venezuela is the Ocial
Map of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and map lay-
ers are derived from the Instituto Geográco de Venezuela
“Simón Bolívar” (IGVSB). Maps showing the distribution
of C. cyaneopubescens were made using QGIS (uantum
Geographic Information System), and ecoregional clas-
sication follows Dinerstein et al. (2017). Base layers for
maps are adapted from the Basic Digital Cartography of
the Protected Natural Areas of Venezuela.
RESULTS
Analysis of the datasets from iNaturalist demonstrat-
ed that 10 out of 11 records (Figs. 2-6) were from the
Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion (Figs. 3, 5, 16). e vast
majority (eight) of these records were from central and
3 On iNaturalist, records are labelled as “Research Grade” when the community agrees on species-level ID or lower, i.e. when more than 2/3 of the
record identiers agree on a taxon. Such records are linked to online infrastructure such as the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility).
New insights on Chromatopelma
39
Figure 2. Map of northwestern Venezuela showing known records of Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens overlain with terrain, municipal-
ity boundaries, and ecoregional classicication (the latter sensu Dinerstein et al. 2017). Records of C. cyaneopubescens are marked with
black dots.
southeastern parts of the Península de Paraguaná. e
other records were of one specimen from the municipio
Miranda, estado Falcón, in Ciudad de Coro in a neigh-
bourhood named ‘Sur La Paz’ (Figs. 2-4) and, most inter-
estingly, one juvenile specimen from municipio Iribarren,
estado Lara, west of Durigua, close to the outskirts of Ciu-
dad de Barquisimeto (Fig. 2). is latter record (Freitez
Gassan 2023) is a signicant range extension for C. cya-
neopubescens and the rst record from the municipio Iri-
barren, Estado Lara, but it is important to note that this
record is still from the contiguous southern spread of the
Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion (Fig. 5), and thus shows
that this species is strongly linked with this unique type of
habitat. e record from ‘Sur La Paz’ is also new, but not
of as much surprise, considering how close it is to the start
of the Península de Paraguaná (Figs. 2-4).
e single outlying record from an ecoregional perspec-
tive is of a single specimen sighted in municipio Colina,
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
40
Figure 3. Inset close-up of terrain of the Península de Paraguaná and nearby mainland, overlain with applicable iNaturalist records
of Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens. In most maps (Figs. 3-14), the areas of Monumento Natural Cerro Santa Ana (marked in red),
Monumento Natural Montecano (marked in green), and Parque Nacional Médanos de Coro (marked with black hashes) are indicated
consistently. Records of C. cyaneopubescens are marked with blue dots.
Figure 4. Ibid, overlain with ecoregional classication.
New insights on Chromatopelma
41
estado Falcón, between the towns of Acurigua and El Paso
(Bermúdez 2022), which lies within the Lara-Falcón dry
forests ecoregion (Fig. 4). is record is not very far away
from the aforementioned record from municipio Miran-
da, estado Falcón (Figs. 2-4), but it does represent a very
important record insofar as it demonstrates that C. cya-
neopubescens occurs at least in part in the northern part of
the Lara-Falcón dry forest. us, C. cyaneopubescens seems
not to be endemic to the Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion.
Nonetheless, both ecoregions are characterised by a dry
climate, indicating this is an important aspect of the habi-
tat requirements of this species.
Two records of adult males from the Península de Para-
guaná also provide the rst data for the dates of the breed-
ing season of C. cyaneopubescens. One male was observed
on 15th April 2021(Nunes 2021). e later record (see
Fig. 1A) was made many years prior on 17th June 2008
(Boyce 2008). When considered together, this indicates
that the maturation of males occurs during April-June and
that this is the main part of the breeding season for C. cya-
neopubescens in the wild. Males might mature earlier or later
than this, and this should be investigated by future workers
(see below). Nonetheless, before the present study, nothing
was known of the dates at which adult males matured and
wandered in search of females in this taxon.
Interestingly, one observation assessed herein (Fig. 1C,
see also Table 1) is of a specimen found on a wooden chair4
in a house within the Natural Monument Montecano, San
José de Cocodite, also observed later on the same day by
the author RG-Z. is particular spider is well known to
be spotted in the house in question and is oen found on
the chair it was photographed on (Yenifer Revilla pers.
comm.), hence the silk seen on the chair. It is thus evident
this species can in part live in areas of human habitation if
not directly disturbed (i.e., here in a house within a nation-
al park, patrolled by park rangers) but this certainly does
not mean that the species as a whole can therefore adapt to
further human encroachment on its habitat (see below).
DISCUSSION
Despite being a small dataset of just 11 records (Ta-
ble 1), the iNaturalist data allowed us to advance our
knowledge of the distribution and habitat association of
C. cyaneopubescens. We can demonstrate that C. cyaneo-
pubescens is predominately distributed in the Paraguaná
xeric scrub ecoregion, as expected, but that it is also pres-
ent in the northern reaches of the Lara-Falcón dry forests
ecoregion. e record from west of Durigua, close to the
outskirts of Barquisimeto represents a range extension of
more than 200 kilometres south into mainland Venezuela.
Finally, the documentation obtained of two males provides
basic information on the months of the breeding season.
Notwithstanding this advance in information on C.
cyaneopubescens, knowledge gaps still exist. We can build
here upon the most precise former assessment of distri-
bution (Colmenares 2015). It is important to further
clarify how widely distributed this species is in the Lara-
Falcón dry forests ecoregion and whether it occurs in
other ecoregions of northwestern Venezuela. We do not
provide detailed ecological observations of its life history
(e.g., burrow construction, abundance, diet), as no direct
eldwork was commenced for this purpose for the pres-
ent work. Nonetheless, we direct the reader to the confer-
ence abstract of Marte (2012) who undertook such stud-
ies at the Monumento Natural Cerro Santa Ana, where
this species is known to occur. As of 2023, we are not
aware that this data was formally published in full yet. We
hope that it will be and that it can be used in conjunction
with the present work to build a fuller picture of the life
history of C. cyaneopubescens and better inform its con-
servation needs.
Some of the previously mentioned records are in Natu-
ral Monuments Montecano (one, Fig. 5) and Cerro Santa
Ana (two, Fig. 6), in the Península de Paraguaná, which
are National Protected Areas. However the rest of the
observations (ve elsewhere within the Península de Para-
guaná, three outside of it) in areas that are not protected
by national law. We suggest that further legal protections
for this species in those other areas be considered, to pro-
mote the protection of this species in its natural habitat.
e fact that 9 out of 11 records are from the Península
de Paraguaná reinforces that this is probably the most im-
portant stronghold of this species, and it thus represents
an important agship species for the region and Venezuela
as a whole.
An analysis of the extent of urbanisation (Fig. 7, 8, 10)
or lack thereof (Fig. 9) and summarising the total number
of settlements of all sizes (Figs. 12-15) show that the habi-
tat of at least one locality is under threat. Namely, habitat
in the neighbourhood ‘Sur La Paz’ in municipio Miranda,
estado Falcón, close to the boundaries of the Parque Na-
cional Médanos de Coro. Furthermore, increased expan-
sion of other areas (i.e., Figs. 11-14) could threaten other
local populations more broadly in Venezuela. is requires
further investigation and long-term monitoring. Given
4 It is clear that this species relies on wood for making retreats in the wild (see above), so this could be a factor in why a specimen indoors placed web-
bing on a wooden chair.
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
42
Table 1. Research Grade records of Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens (Strand, 1907) from iNaturalist, veried by the
authors.
#Date iNaturalist
observation
number
Coordinates
Latitude/
Longitude Locality Observer
(username) URLs
1 20/10/2007 111059867 11.818419,
-69.951818
Monumento Natural
Cerro Santa Ana,
municipio Falcón
(MF), Península de
Paraguaná (PdP),
Estado Falcón (EF)
Samuel Valdes (samuelvaldes)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/111059867
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/3759982543
2 17/06/2008 14470886 N/A PdP,EF[precise
locality data unable
to be recalled] Andy J. Boyce (andyjboyce)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/14470886
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/1883552636
3 17/06/2008 14470887 N/A PdP, EF [precise
locality data unable
to be recalled] Andy J. Boyce (andyjboyce)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/14470887
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/1883552571
4 20/09/2015 52270528 11.937907,
-69.993943 Los Planchones,
MF, PdP, EF Pedro D. Vernet P.
(pedrovernet)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/52270528
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/2814424083
5 20/09/2015 52260208 11.936644,
-69.994218 Los Planchones,
MF, PdP, EF Pedro D. Vernet P.
(pedrovernet)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/52260208
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/2814420997
6 24/04/2017 52270529 11.945934,
-69.970558
Natural Monument
Montecano, San
José de Cocodite,
MF, PdP, EF
Pedro D. Vernet P.
(pedrovernet)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/52270529
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/2814393215
7 26/08/2017 70446564 10.178446,
-69.519884
Municipio Iribarren,
estado Lara, west of
Durigua, close to the
outskirts of Ciudad
de Barquisimeto
Eduardo José Freitez Gassán
(eduardo_jose_freitez_gassan)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/70446564
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/3059105532
8 05/03/2019 59847258 11.792704,
-69.955034
Monumento
Natural Cerro
Santa Ana, MF,
PdP, estado Falcón
Luis Alberto
Hernández Guanipa
(luisalbertohernandezguanipa)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/59847258
[no link to GBIF as user
has restricted copyright
to ‘all rights reserved’]
9 15/04/2021 74522551 11.814838,
-69.94809
Monumento
Natural Cerro
Santa Ana, MF,
PdP, estado Falcón
Fernando Nunes (frnnd_ccs)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/74522551
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/3097016194
10 30/01/2022 107713310 11.315966,
-69.459598
Municipio Colina,
estado Falcón,
between the
towns of Acurigua
and El Paso
Yaudimar Bermúdez
(yaudimarjuan)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/107713310
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/3705456625
11 09/01/2023 146237618 11.428263,
-69.632387
Municipio Miranda,
estado Falcón, in
Ciudad de Coro,
‘Sur La Paz’
(andreaa04)
https://www.inaturalist.org/
observations/146237618
https://www.gbif.org/
occurrence/4015367491
New insights on Chromatopelma
43
Figure 6. Close-up of the boundaries of the Monumento Natural Montecano (in green) and nearby records.
Figure 5. Close-up of the boundaries of the Monumento Natural Cerro Santa Ana (in red) and nearby records.
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
44
Figure 7. Close-up of the centre and south of the Península de Paraguaná and northern strip of mainland, showing distance between
C. cyaneopubescens and areas of urbanisation (in orange) sensu Centro Urbanos Capitales de Municipios (Instituto Geográco de Ve-
nezuela Simón Bolívar).
Figure 8. Close-up of urbanization (in orange) sensu centros urbanos capitales de municipios (Instituto Geográco de Venezuela Si-
món Bolívar) near to record from Ciudad de Coro, ‘Sur La Paz’.
New insights on Chromatopelma
45
Figure 9. Map showing absence of areas of urbanization near to record from municipio Colina, estado Falcón.
Figure 10. Close-up of urbanization (in orange) sensu centros urbanos capitales de municipios (Instituto Geográco de Venezuela
Simón Bolívar) near to record from municipio Iribarren.
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
46
Figure 11. Total number of settlements (green-black dots) in relation to records sightings on and near the Península de Paraguaná.
Figure 12. Total number of settlements (green-black dots) in relation to record from Ciudad de Coro, ‘Sur La Paz’.
New insights on Chromatopelma
47
Figure 13. Total number of settlements (green-black dots) in relation to record from west of Durigua, close to the outskirts of Ciudad
de Barquisimeto.
Figure 14. Total number of settlements (green-black dots) in relation to record from municipio Colina, estado Falcón.
D. Sherwood & R. Gianni-Zurita
48
that C. cyaneopubescens is a charismatic species of Venezu-
elan invertebrate, restricted to certain habitat types, it is
unlikely to survive if its habitat is degraded severely. e
proximity of known records to human habitation dem-
onstrates that further action may be needed to ensure its
longer-term survival if urbanisation, particularly in the
Península de Paraguaná, continues.
Finally, outside of iNaturalist records, we can also
cite previously published data that seems to have been
Figure 15. Photo of the general habitat found in the Paraguaná xeric scrub ecoregion (sensu Dinerstein et al. 2017). Photograph by
‘Vascovenezolano’ licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
overlooked in recent assessments of this species. Barrio-
Amorós et al. (2008) make a very interesting record of ago-
nistic behaviour between two mature males outside the re-
treat of an adult female on a fallen hollow log. rough the
kindness of Gilson Rivas (Maracaibo), we can also provide
a hitherto unpublished additional photograph showing
the female emerging from her retreat next to the two (now
separated and no longer exhibiting agonistic behaviour)
males (Fig. 16). is observation was made in May 2005,
New insights on Chromatopelma
49
falling within the month range for the breeding season
(April–June) discussed above.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to Pedro D. Vernet P. and Andy J.
Boyce for allowing use of their excellent photographs of
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens from the Península de
Paraguaná. We are very grateful to Rodrigo Lazo, who
provided us with layers of Península de Paraguaná, Parque
Nacional Médanos de Coro and Monumento Natural
Cerro Santa Ana and archive .jpeg format of the Penín-
sula de Paraguaná taken from the ESRI Imagery Basemap;
and to Grisel Velásquez for providing the shape le of the
Monumento Natural Montecano. Yenifer Revilla (Insti-
tuto Nacional de Parques de Venezuela-INPARUES) is
thanked for information about the habits of the particular
spider oen found on a chair in a house within the Natural
Monument Montecano, San José de Cocodite. We warmly
thank Gilson Rivas for the invitation to submit this work
to the journal Anartia. e valuable comments of the re-
viewers, including Jorge M. González, improved the man-
uscript. Last, but not least, we thank citizen scientists who
give their valuable time and eort to contribute records
that can be used by researchers.
REFERENCES
Barrio-Amorós, C. L., A. Miralles, G. Rivas & T. Barros. 2008.
Reptiles de la península venezolana de Paraguaná. Reptilia
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