Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of the tarantula genera Tapinauchenius Ausserer, 1871, Psalmopoeus Pocock, 1985, and Amazonius n. gen. (Theraphosidae, Psalmopoeinae).

Abstract

The genera Psalmopoeus Pocock, 1895, Tapinauchenius Ausserer, 1871 and Pseudoclamoris Hsser, 2018 are revised and cladistics analyses carried out including most species of these genera. In order to test the monophyly of Aviculariinae and Psalmopoeinae, species of all genera in these two subfamilies were included, as well as of Harpactirinae, Selenocosmiinae, Theraphosinae, Stromatopelmatinae, Ischnocolinae, Schismatothelinae, Poecilotherinae, and a barychelid was used to root the cladogram. The matrix with 50 terminal taxa, 1 continuous and 85 discrete characters was analysed with TNT 1.5. The results show a monophyletic Psalmopoeinae as sister group of Aviculariinae. Psalmopoeus comprises 9 species: Psalmopoeus cambridgei Pocock, 1895 (type species), Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus Pocock, 1903, Psalmopoeus emeraldus Pocock, 1903, Psalmopoeus irminia Saager, 1994, Psalmopoeus langenbucheri Schmidt, Bullmer Thierer-Lutz, 2006, Psalmopoeus plantaris Pocock, 1903, Psalmopoeus pulcher Petrunkevitch, 1925, Psalmopoeus reduncus (Karsch, 1880), and Psalmopoeus victori Mendoza, 2014. Psalmopoeus intermedius Chamberlin, 1940 is considered a junior synonym of P. reduncus. Psalmopoeus copanensis Gabriel Sherwood, 2020, P. sandersoni Gabriel Sherwood, 2020 and P. petenensis Gabriel Sherwood, 2020 are considered junior synonyms of P. victori. Psalmopoeus maya Witt, 1996 is considered nomen nudum. Tapinauchenius comprises 8 species: Tapinauchenius plumipes (C. L. Koch, 1842) (type species), Tapinauchenius sanctivincenti (Walckenaer, 1837), Tapinauchenius latipes L. Koch, 1875, Tapinauchenius brunneus Schmidt, 1995, Tapinauchenius cupreus Schmidt Bauer, 1996, Tapinauchenius polybotes Hsser, 2018, Tapinauchenius rasti Hsser, 2018, and T. gretae n. sp. The female of T. brunneus is described for first time. Tapinauchenius violaceus (Mello-Leito, 1930), T. purpureus Schmidt, 1995, T. concolor (Caporiaccco, 1947), and T. gigas Caporiacco, 1954 are considered junior synonyms of T. plumipes. With the synonymy of T. gigas (type species of Pseudoclamoris Hsser, 2018), it was necessary to describe a new genus for the two species formerly included in it. Thus, the new genus Amazonius n. gen. is erected to include A. elenae (Schmidt, 1994) n. comb., A. burgessi (Hsser, 2018) n. comb. as well as two new species A. giovaninii n. gen. n. sp. and A. germani n. gen. n. sp. A discussion on the relationship of Psalmopoeinae and Aviculariinae and maps with the distributions of all species are provided.