BRASILIONATA WUNDERLICH, 1995

FIGS 133G, 142O

Brasilionata Wunderlich, 1995: 545 .

Type species

Brasilionata arborense Wunderlich, 1995 by original designation and monotypy, holotype in AMNH, examined.

Familial placement and composition

Brasilionata is a member of the mysmeninae clade C128 (also comprising Mysmeniola, Microdipoena, and MYSM-019-MAD), and is sister to Microdipoena (Fig. 161B). Brasilionata is here represented by its type and only species B. arborense .

Monophyly and diagnosis

This Brazilian monotypic genus is only known by the male holotype specimen, and it is diagnosed by the following combination of autapomorphies: male palpal tibial rim scoop-shaped, cymbial fold with row of setae similar to surrounding setae (i.e. not minute), embolus with an apical switch in the coiling direction as in Microdipoena (Fig. 133G), uniform abdominal dorsal colour pattern and anterior median eyes separate (Fig. 142O). There appears to be a subtle depression between the anterior median eyes, which could also be synapomorphic for the genus (Fig. 142O; see Wunderlich, 1995: fig. 10), although it has not been explicitly proposed as such in previous studies. Brasilionata has been previously diagnosed by somehow vague characters (Wunderlich, 1995), which when examined within a revisionary context can be assigned to any other mysmenid genus or are simply symplesiomorphies: lack of femoral spot on male, no trichobothrium on metatarsus IV, eight eyes equal in size, one metatarsal prolateral clasping spine, male palpal femur, patella and tibia without structures, cymbium long and distally slender, with a cymbial process, and embolus with apophysis. We could not find an embolic apophysis and instead we report a coiling switch of the distal part of the embolus.