Melopoeus lividus (Smith, 1996)

Common name: Cobalt Blue

♀ Female described ♂ Male described
Female Female

Type Locality and Records

Type locality

Original Description

Smith, A. (1996). A new species of Haplopelma (Araneae: Theraphosidae), with notes on two close relatives. Mygalomorph 1: 21-32.
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Distribution

Myanmar

Type Locality: MYANMAR: Kawkareik, Kayin State; male holotype and female paratypes in NHML

Etymology

The specific name lividum means blue and black

Taxonomic History

  1. Recorded in Myanmar from Kayin and Tanintharyi (Ono et al., 2026).
  2. Returned to Melopoeus Pocock, 1895, which Smith, Daniel & Vignaud (2026) restore. With the type species of Cyriopagopus deemed a nomen dubium, the species it had absorbed had to go somewhere; the authors, following von Wirth's examination of the relevant types, reject Raven's (1985) view that Melopoeus is a synonym of Haplopelma and place these seven in Melopoeus rather than Haplopelma.

Bibliography (3)

Smith, A. (1996). A new species of Haplopelma (Araneae: Theraphosidae), with notes on two close relatives. Mygalomorph 1: 21-32.
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Ono, H., Suzuki, Y., Okumura, K. & Aung, M. M. (2026). Spider Fauna of Myanmar, with a Checklist of the Species Recorded from 1878 to 2025 (Arachnida, Araneae). Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Series A 52(1): 1-56.
Smith, A., Daniel, B. & Vignaud, B. (2026). Nomenclatural notes on the Ornithoctoninae genera Cyriopagopus Simon 1887, Haplopelma Simon 1892 and Melopoeus Pocock 1895 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) with the intention of restoring the genera Haplopelma and Melopoeus. Journal of the British Tarantula Society 40(3): 15-28.
The World Spider Catalogue