The May Spider of the Month is this Junod’s golden baboon spider (Augacephalus junodi; Theraphosidae), photographed by Kyle Thomas, and found in northern Limpopo.
With a body length of up to 60 mm (excluding the legs), this is one of South Africa’s largest spiders. They mostly occur in the northern parts of South Africa (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng), but have also been found in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. They live in silk-lined burrows in the Grassland and Savanna biomes.
There are only three species of Augacephalus in the world, all of which occur only in Africa. This species can be found in South Africa and East Africa. Another species (A. ezendami) is found in Mozambique, and the other one (A. breyeri) in South Africa, Mozambique, and Eswatini.
The name originates from the Greek auga, meaning “sun rays” and kephale, meaning “head”, because of the radiating lines on the carapace. The species was named after Henri-Alexandre Junod, who collected the first/type specimen. He was a Swiss-born South African missionary, anthropologist, and linguist who had a keen interest in the natural world. For much of his career, he was stationed outside Tzaneen in Limpopo.
Out of 183 people who voted, Kyle’s photo received 100 (55%) votes. Unfortunately, another spider (Brad R Raath’s hedgehog spider) also received 100 votes. I kept the poll open for a while longer for a “sudden death” vote, but with every vote that came in, they were still tied. In this very rare occurrence, we left the last vote to the admins, who voted for Kyle’s photo.
Sorry, Brad, and congratulations to Kyle for yet another SOTM win!