Megaphobema lakoi ( Mello-Leitão, 1943 ) Bertani, 2023

Bertani, Rogério, 2023, Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Araneae, Theraphosidae) with notes on related genera, Zootaxa 5390 (1), pp. 1-116 : 108-109

Megaphobema lakoi ( Mello-Leitão, 1943) n. comb.

( Figs 291 ─296)

Lasiodora lakoi Mello-Leitão, 1943: 257 ; Silva-Moreira et al. 2010: 70; World Spider Catalog 2023.

Type material. Holotype male from Brazil, state of Amazonas, Tavariá Grande, Purús River , Lako col., MNRJ 14002 , examined ( Figs 291 ─296).

Remark. Lasiodora lakoi was described by Mello-Leitão (1943) based on a male from Tavariá Grande, Rio Purus, Brazil. The MNRJ has a specimen with a label with the same locality and collector and the indication of “ Typus ”, but with the name “ Acanthoscurria pugnax ” (Moreira-Silva et al. 2010) . Acanthoscurria pugnax Vellard, 1924 was described 19 years before by Vellard (1924) with a male specimen from the border of the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia, in Brazil, and is now considered a junior synonym of Acanthoscurria gomesiana Mello-Leitão, 1923 ( World Spider Catalog 2023). It seems that Mello-Leitão identified this specimen as A. pugnax Vellard, 1924 and then realized it was a new species and honored the collector, Lako, with the new species name without replacing labels. Measurements of the specimen also agree with the description ( Silva-Moreira et al. 2010). The type locality is probably Tauariá Grande [05º34’50”S, 63º53’60”W]( Silva-Moreira et al. 2010), a nowadays still a remote small locality on the border of Rio Purús belonging to Tapauá in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.

The specimen is very large, covered with velvety setae and lacks stridulatory apparatus on the coxae. It has a bifid spur on leg I (Figs 293─294), and the metatarsus I, when folded, touches the retrolateral process laterally. The male palp bulb is strongly flattened laterally and has a concave/convex shape (Figs 295─296). It lacks the retrolateral keel and has additional prolateral keels. All these characters match with the diagnostic characters of the genus Megaphobema . Therefore, Lasiodora lakoi Mello-Leitão, 1943 is transferred to Megaphobema lakoi ( Mello-Leitão, 1943) new comb. This species seems indistinguishable from Megaphobema velvetosoma Schmidt, 1995 , but, as the Megaphobema genus remains unrevised, I prefer not to synonymize M. velvetosoma with M. lakoi .

Figures

FIGURES 291─296. Lasiodora lakoi Mello-Leitão, 1943, holotype male (MNRJ 14002). 291, habitus. 292, lateral. (293─294) right tibial apophysis. 293, prolateral. 294, ventral. (295─296) right palpal bulb. 295, prolateral. 296, retrolateral.