Phoneutria - distribution

The genus Phoneutria is distributed from Central America (Costa Rica) to southern (subtropical) South America. Brazil is the home of Phoneutria - eight of nine valid species can be found there.

One to three species occur in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Surinam. P. nigriventer was introduced to Chile and Uruguay and a few species of Phoneutria are regularly imported to European countries.

In Brazil, there are the relatively widespread Amazonian species P. boliviensis (see below), P. fera and P. reidyi and the Atlantic Forest species P. bahiensis, restricted to the northeastern states of Bahia and Espírito Santo. P. keyserlingi is restricted to the coastal region from Rio de Janeiro to Santa Catarina and P. eickstedtae to inland fragments of the Atlantic Forest. P. nigriventer is also a widely distributed species, occuring throughout wide parts of (southeastern) Brazil to Northern Argentina and parts of Uruguay and Paraguay.

The true P. boliviensis has recently shown to be endemic of the Amazon region (cis-Andean; Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and eventually Venezuela) and allopatric to the trans-Andean P. depilata, occuring from Ecuador and Colombia to Central America (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama).