Subject:Â What kind of spider is this?
Geographic location of the bug:Â Peru-Machu Picchu
Date: 08/29/2021
Time: 05:48 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:Â Hi! I saw the spider pictured in my photo on a rock at Machu Picchu in late August.
How you want your letter signed:Â Melinda
Dear Melinda,
This is a primitive spider in the Infraorder Mygalomorphae, a group that includes Tarantulas and Trapdoor Spiders. Your individual does not look hairy enough to be a Tarantula, so we suspect it is a Trapdoor Spider. We did try to locate matching images online with no luck, though we searched for both Tarantulas and Trapdoor Spiders in Peru.
Update:Â Linothele uniformis
A special thanks to Cesar Crash of Insetologia who wrote in identifying this Mygalomorph as a Funnel Web Spider, Linothele uniformis, and providing this link to Science Press.