
Asia-Pacific Tarantulas
Selenocosmiinae
The Selenocosmiinae are a subfamily of tarantulas (Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae) found throughout South-East Asia and Australia. This subfamily is defined by the presence of a lyra on the maxillae and strikers on the chelicerae, allowing these spiders to stridulate and produce a "hissing" sound. However some species within Phlogiellus may have secondary lost their lyra but retain their strikers. The monophyly of the subfamily has been only tested using genetic data with a handful of genera or species in a few studies. However, these studies found genera that had been previously placed in this subfamily were actual their own separate subfamily (Poecilotheria) and that Selenocosmiinae is most closely related to the Indian Thrigmopoeinae. As of 2025, Selenocosmiinae contains 13 genera.
13 branches of this subfamily, most-observed first

Phlogiellus
genusPhlogiellus

Chilobrachys
genusChilobrachys

Selenocosmia
genusSelenocosmia

Coremiocnemis
genusCoremiocnemis

Haplocosmia
genusHaplocosmia

Orphnaecus
genusOrphnaecus

Selenotypus
genusSelenotypus

Selenobrachys
genusSelenobrachys

Chilocosmia
genusChilocosmia

Birupes
genusBirupes

Psednocnemis
genusPsednocnemis

Lyrognathus
genusLyrognathus

Selenotholus
genusSelenotholus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Selenocosmiinae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 808278.