ARTÍCULO: Redescription of the holotypes of Mygalarachnae Ausserer 1871 and Harpaxictis Simon (1892) (Araneae: Theraphosidae) with rebuttal of their synonymy with Sericopelma Ausserer 1875. Ray Gabriel and Stuart.J. Longhorn ARTÍCULO: Abstract: Redescription of the holotypes of The examination of specimens from various Neotropical tarantula genera (The- Mygalarachnae Ausserer 1871 and raphosidae) indicated the unique nature of monotypic genera Mygalarachnae Harpaxictis Simon (1892) (Araneae: Ausserer 1871 and Harpaxictis Simon 1892. Review of the both holotypes leads Theraphosidae) with rebuttal of their us to argue that Mygalarachnae and Harpaxictis should be removed from their synonymy with Sericopelma current synonymy with Sericopelma Ausserer 1875. The presence of type I and Ausserer 1875. III urticating hairs on the holotype specimen of Mygalarachnae firmly place it in the subfamily Theraphosinae and we argue should be restored as a valid genus, Ray Gabriel so that current placement of “incertae sedis” is inappropriate. The identity of Hope Entomological Collections, Harpaxictis striatus is less certain, but here removed from synonymy with Seri- Oxford University Museum of Natural copelma, and due to a lack of other diagnostic features is suggested as nomen History, Parks Road, Oxford, dubium. Possible affinities of Mygalarachne with other valid genera of Thera- Oxon, England, OX1 3PW, UK. phosinae are briefly discussed. Key words: Sericopelma, Tarantula. Mygalarachne brevipes, Harpaxictis striatus, Stuart.J. Longhorn Taxonomy: Mygalarachne brevipes comb. rev., Harpaxictis striatus comb. rev. Dept. of Entomology. The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, Redescripción de los holotipos de Mygalarachnae Ausserer 1871 UK. y Harpaxictis Simon (1892) rechazando su sinonímia con Dept. of Biology. Sericopelma Ausserer 1875. National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Co. Kildare, Ireland (Eire). Email: [email protected] Resumen: El estudio de los ejemplares de varios géneros de tarántulas Neotropicales Revista Ibérica de Aracnología (Theraphosidae) indican la naturaleza única de los géneros monotípicos Mygala- ISSN: 1576 - 9518. rachnae Ausserer 1871 y Harpaxictis Simon 1892. La revisión de ambos holoti- Dep. Legal: Z-2656-2000. pos nos lleva a proponer que Mygalarachnae y Harpaxictis no son sinonimias de Vol. 19 Sericopelma Ausserer 1875. La presencia de pelos urticantes tipo I y III en el Sección: Artículos y Notas. holotipo de Mygalarachnae apoya claramente su adscripción a la subfamilia Pp: 157−165 Theraphhosinae y, por tanto, su actual ubicación como "incertae sedis" es in- Fecha de publicación: 15-Febrero-2011 adecuada y debe ser restaurada como género válido. Aunque no es una sino- nímia de Sericopelma, la identidad de Harpaxictis striatus es incierta, y a falta de Edita: otras características diagnósticas proponemos considerarla como nomen du- Grupo Ibérico de Aracnología (GIA) bium. Se discuten brevemente las posibles afinidades de Mygalarachne con Grupo de trabajo en Aracnología otros géneros válidos de Theraphosinae. de la Sociedad Entomológica Palabras clave: Sericopelma, Tarantula. Mygalarachne brevipes, Harpaxictis striatus, Aragonesa (SEA) Taxonomía: : Mygalarachne brevipes comb. rev., Harpaxictis striatus comb. rev. Avda. Radio Juventud, 37 50012 Zaragoza (ESPAÑA) Tef. 976 324415 Introduction Fax. 976 535697 C-elect.: [email protected] The genus Mygalarachne was established in 1871 for a new tarantula spider Director: Carles Ribera with notably short legs collected in Honduras. Only the female was descri- C-elect.: [email protected] bed, and named M. brevipes Ausserer 1871. This species was initially placed as a sub-genus of Acanthoscurria Koch 1842, though soon given full generic Indice, resúmenes, abstracts, vols. status by Simon who further distinguished the large robust chelicerae and publicados: http://gia.sea-entomologia.org/jour_ lack of femoral scopula (Simon 1892). The distinction was supported in intro_es.html subsequent revisions (Pickard-Cambridge 1897, Petrunkevitch 1911). In the Página web GIA: same original publication, Ausserer also erected the genus Harpaxibius for http://gia.sea-entomologia.org the Venezuelan species H. striatus Ausserer 1871 (supposedly also based on a female or unsexed juvenile as no adult male characters are given), and Página web SEA: initially erected as a subgenus of the poorly defined Crypsidromus. Full ge- http://www.sea-entomologia.org 158 Ray Gabriel and Stuart.J. Longhorn neric status of Harpaxibius was also supported by 1985, p 158). A few years previously, Lucas 1981 had Simon 1892 under the replacement name Harpaxictis diagnosed a new genus Nhandu from Brazil, with the striatus (Ausserer 1871), as the preoccupied Harpaxi- description of a single species N. carapoensis. Like bius referred to an unassigned Hymenoptera. Much Sericopelma, this species also lacks tibial apophyses in later, after examining the NHMV holotypes of both H. mature males, and lacks stridulatory hairs on prolateral striatus and M. brevipes in a seminal revision of myga- coxae I or II (Lucas, 1981). Furthermore females are lomorph spiders, Raven (1985) concluded the genera characterized by the presence of retrolateral scopulae on Harpaxictis and Mygalarachne were synonymous, as femur IV (Bertani 2001), another attribute reportedly these did not “differ in any characters of generic signifi- diagnostic of Sericopelma, but actually plesiomorphic cance”. However, no further discussion of the evaluated for several theraphosinae genera (Bertani 2001, p315). character set was given, except the key “clypeus narrow In the revision of Raven (1985), Mygalarachne or absent, tibia of males without spur (though this char- (=Sericopelma) and Nhandu were also considered syn- acter cannot be determined on holotypes), one broad onymous, “because it [Nhandu] differs insufficiently indistinct spermathecal receptacula” (Raven 1985, p from Sericopelma (=Mygalarachne) in the conformation 119). of the palpal bulb” (Page 156/157), while the absence of Previously, Ausserer 1875 had also established the sub- retrolateral femoral scopulae in Mygalarachne was genus Sericopelma to house the male of new species considered a reversal. from Chiriquí province in Panama without tibial This proposed synonymy between Nhandu and Seri- apophyses (“durch die unbewaffnete tibia I des man- copelma was rejected by Schmidt (1989), so that My- nes”), which he named S. rubronitens. Sericopelma was galarachne retained status as the senior synonym for originally a subgenus of Eurypelma, but was later given Sericopelma containing Harpaxictis (after Raven 1985; full generic status (Simon 1891). This initial description Schmidt 1990a, 1990b). After examining the holotype was soon followed by Karsch 1880 who described an- specimen of Mygalarachnae, Lucas et al 1991 con- other species from Chiriquí Panama, named Theraphosa cluded it was a juvenile female without characteristics panamana, also without tibial apophyses (“ohne dorn- that could place it in any genera or species. Conse- fortsatz” in Karsh 1880) but without examination of quently, Mygalarachnae was declared “incertae sedis” Ausserer’s type. Soon after, Simon in 1892 on examin- thus leaving only Harpaxictis as a junior synonym of the ing another male specimen from Chiriquí Panama, restored Sericopelma. Schmidt (1993) states that My- placed both his un-described specimen and that of galarachnae was retransferred to the “Ischnocolinae Karsch into synonymy with Ausserer’s Sericopelma incertae sedis”, although Lucas et al. 1991 do not men- rubronitens. Simon 1892 also emphasized the lack of tion any characteristics to suggest Mygalarachne should male tibial apophyses to define Sericopelma (“l'absence be placed into the poorly defined subfamily Ischnocoli- d’eperons aux tibias antérieurs des males”). In 1897, nae. Currently, Mygalarachne brevipes is listed as either Pickard-Cambridge described a second species also incertae cedis (Lucas et al 1991; Huber, Samm and from the same location in Panama, he named Seri- Schmidt 1996) or as nomen dubium without justification copelma commune. The genus Sericopelma expanded (Schmidt 2003, as Platnick 2010). The current status of with the description of Sericopelma fallax Mello-Leitão H. striatus is more ambiguous. Huber, Samm and 1923 from Brazil, based on another single male speci- Schmidt (1996) simply list it as nomen obscurum with- men without tibial apophyses. With the exception of a out justification, while later catalogues cursorily add possible species of Sericopelma from Nicaragua (Schia- that only the prosoma remains (Schmidt 2003). Yet, the pelli and Gerschman, 1967), the genus remained stable species generally remains listed as the valid Sericopelma until Valerio 1980 described seven new species from striatum (Ausserer, 1871) (i.e. Platnick 2010). Other Costa Rica, namely S. upala, S. dota, S. ferugineum, S. studies including cladistic analyses have not supported generala, S. immensum, S. melanotarsum, and S. sylvi- the synonymy of Nhandu and Sericopelma, with their cola Valerio 1980. Here, the genus Sericopelma was distinction supported by several characters including the characterized by the presence of a dense cushion of shape of palpal bulb and spermathecae (Pérez-Miles et plumose hair on the inner face of femur IV, and absence al. 1996; Bertani 2001, and accordingly listed as sepa- of stridulatory setae on trochanter I, nor scopula on leg rate genera in Platnick 2010). IV metatarsus, in addition to the absence