Systematics of the Neotropical Nemesiidae genera (Araneae, Mygalomorphae)

Abstract

Nemesiidae Simon, 1889 was elevated to the level of family from the tribe Nemesiae Simon, 1889, described in Ctenizinae Thorell, 1887 and considered a senior synonym of Pycnothelidae Chamberlin, 1917. It was divided into six subfamilies: Anaminae Simon, 1889, Simon Bemmerinae, 1903, Diplothelopsinae Schiapelli & Gerschmann, 1967, Ixamatinae Raven, 1985, Nemesiinae Simon, 1889 and Pycnothelinae Chamberlin, 1917. Among these, four presented Neotropical representatives: Anaminae, with 18 genera and 166 species, three genera and 34 Neotropical species; Diplothelopsinae with five genera and 24 species, all Neotropical; Nemesiinae, with five genera and 75 species, with a monotypic genus Neotropical and Pycnothelinae, with eight genera and 33 species, all Neotropical. The revision and cladistic analysis of Nemesiidae performed with the fauna from Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay showed that Anaminae, Pycnothelinae and Nemesiidae are paraphyletic. Recently, Pycnothelinae was submitted to cladistic analysis. The main result was that it could only be considered monophyletic if it were senior synonym of Diplothelopsinae, plus the inclusion of genera and species of Neotropical Anaminae. Considering the taxonomic changes to be made from these results, all genera and species from South American Nemesiidae now belong to Pycnothelinae. Currently, from the 17 Neotropical genera, seven were fully reviewed and 10 were not reviewed. This study aims to systematically review of the Neotropical Nemesiidae genera not reviewed, as well as test the monophyly of the same, through a cladistic analysis based on morphological data.