Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula (Veronese Designs)

Walkaround of the Mexican red-kneed tarantula, Brachypelma smithi (P-Cambridge, 1897) by Veronese Design. I am going to start with a little taxonomic disclaimer. There is confusion to the identity of spiders referred to as Mexican red-knees, since the description of a cryptic sibling species, B. hamorii Cleton and Verdez, 1997. The two species are indistinguishable morpholoically and can only be separated by DNA barcoding and strict geographic distribution. In the absence of a figure being specifically ascribed to a given species, I am referring to all figures as the classic B. smithi.

This species is probably the most commonly-made spider figure, and we will be getting two this year, by Schleich and Mojo Fun (and for both those companies their first standards-sized arthropods!).

This is my second walkaround of a Veronese figurine, the other being an emperor scorpion roughly one year ago. Like the scorpion, the tarantula is cold case resin, making it more of a statuette than a figure/toy. The detail is extraordinary and better than any toy version of this species. The body length (not including appendages) is about 6.5 cm making it slightly larger than 1:1 for a large female specimen.

The figure is permanently fixed to a very detailed base that includes a bonus arthropod, a 1:1 ladybug!

On to the pics:

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Very nice!!!