Pterinochilus murinus “Kigoma” DCF refers to a locality‑linked dark colour form collected around the Kigoma region of western Tanzania, near the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Compared with the more familiar Usambara orange form, the Kigoma DCF tends toward deeper earth‑tone palettes: charcoal, muted browns, and dusky greys that give it a more understated, almost camouflaged appearance. The patterning is still unmistakably P. murinus—bold abdominal chevrons, crisp leg banding, and that characteristic starburst carapace—but expressed in a darker, more subdued register. It’s a striking animal precisely because it looks like the species stripped back to its wild, rugged core.
 
Behaviourally, the Kigoma DCF is everything you expect from an OBT lineage: fast, defensive, and intensely industrious with silk. Even juveniles lay down thick sheets and build complex tunnels, and adults often transform an enclosure into a dense, three‑dimensional web structure. They are highly responsive to movement and vibration, making them a species best appreciated visually rather than through interaction. As with other Pterinochilus, they thrive in dry, well‑ventilated setups with deep substrate and plenty of anchor points, and they reward good husbandry with confident feeding responses and impressive engineering.
 
The locality itself adds an interesting layer. Kigoma sits in a transitional zone of dry woodland, rocky outcrops, and savanna margins—habitats that suit fossorial and opportunistic web‑building tarantulas. The DCF phenotype likely reflects adaptation to these darker, more shaded microhabitats. For keepers, this form offers a chance to work with a lineage that feels closer to the wild ecology of the species: less flamboyant than the Usambara orange, but arguably more evocative of the landscapes P. murinus evolved in. It’s a beautiful, bold, and unapologetically “classic” African baboon tarantula.