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Hamori or Smithi?
- Thread starter Usere5959
- Start date
- Messages
- 126
- Location
- USA
It's nearly impossible to tell from a photograph because proper ID depends heavily on subtle differences in color. The camera, lighting, image compression, and the monitor one is using all have an affect on that. You really gotta be there in person to see the animal with the naked eye to get a good impression.
Here's the OFFICIAL guide on how to them apart. These two features are all you have to work with. Other than that they are essentially identical. The two species were almost certainly the same until very recently when the Balsas river divided their range and caused them to diverge evolutionarily. It's like spotting differences in identical twins.
In my experience it's the yellow tint on the leg hairs of B. smithi that give away the game but the color differences can be so minor that it's rare to come away being certain. The colors are also dependent on where in the molt cycle the animal is with the yellow tending to be more prominent right after a molt.
Note that there's a strong probability that there are plenty of hamorii/smithi hybrids in the US hobby that could look like either depnding on the time of day, phase of the moon, what they had for lunch yesterday, etc., etc., etc., so you've got that to deal with too.
So good luck getting a definitive answer. It's damned hard without DNA analysis!
Here's the OFFICIAL guide on how to them apart. These two features are all you have to work with. Other than that they are essentially identical. The two species were almost certainly the same until very recently when the Balsas river divided their range and caused them to diverge evolutionarily. It's like spotting differences in identical twins.
In my experience it's the yellow tint on the leg hairs of B. smithi that give away the game but the color differences can be so minor that it's rare to come away being certain. The colors are also dependent on where in the molt cycle the animal is with the yellow tending to be more prominent right after a molt.
Note that there's a strong probability that there are plenty of hamorii/smithi hybrids in the US hobby that could look like either depnding on the time of day, phase of the moon, what they had for lunch yesterday, etc., etc., etc., so you've got that to deal with too.
So good luck getting a definitive answer. It's damned hard without DNA analysis!
- Messages
- 889
- Location
- UK
I thought there was thread on it on here showing leg & carapace patterns. Or maybe its been revised again but you can also google it as well as using the above .
