Scopelobates sericeus Simon, 1903

Guadanucci, José Paulo Leite, Perafán, Carlos & Valencia-Cuéllar, Dayana, 2017, The genus Holothele Karsch, 1879: the identity of the type species (Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae), Zoosystema 39 (2), pp. 263-271 : 270

Scopelobates sericeus Simon, 1903

Scopelobates sericeus Simon, 1903: 928 .

Holothele sericea – Raven 1985: 159. — Perez-Miles et al. 1996: 60. — Rudloff 1997: 11, fig. 8-11.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype ♀ (MNHN-AR-AR5032) from Ins. Santo Domingo, Dominic Republic, examined.

REMARKS

The examination of the holotype revealed the presence of a conspicuous dorsal abdominal patch of urticating setae type I and III, which clearly makes it a representative of the subfamily Theraphosinae . Interestingly, this feature had not been noticed before. This species is very similar to representatives of the genus Stichoplastoris Rudloff, 1997 . The type specimen does not possess any stridulating setae, and therefore, the two Dominican genera Phormictopus Pocock, 1901 and Cyrtopholis Simon, 1892 could not accommodate it. However, without a comprehensive examination of the type material of the species currently included in the genus Stichoplastoris , any taxonomic rearrangement should not be proposed. Therefore, as a useful step towards revised nomenclature we remove this species from Holothele and revalidate Scopelobates . In this way, a taxonomic survey including Theraphosinae species from West Indies would clarify this issue.