[Article] Bertani et al. - Pterinopelma revalidation and a new species

[Zoltan]

Published on Monday in Zootaxa:

Bertani, R., R. H. Nagahama & C. S. Fukushima. 2011. Revalidation of Pterinopelma Pocock 1901 with description of a new species and the female of Pterinopelma vitiosum (Keyserling 1891) (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). Zootaxa 2814: 1–18.

Abstract. We revalidate the theraphosid genus Pterinopelma Pocock 1901, describe the female of P. vitiosum for first time and Pterinopelma sazimai sp. nov. from Brazil. These two species were included in a matrix with 35 characters and 32 taxa and were analyzed both with all characters having same weight and with implied weights. Searches considering all characters non-additive or some additive were also carried out. The preferred tree, obtained with implied weights, concavity 6 and all characters non-additive shows that Pterinopelma is a monophyletic genus sister to the clade Lasiodora (Vitalius + Nhandu). The presence of denticles on the prolateral inferior male palpal bulb keel is a synapomorphy of the genus.

Wow! There's a picture of the female of P. sazimai in the article, and with the exception of the opisthosoma (which appears to be black, and it's furnished with red setae), the whole spider sports a stunning dark blue color!

 

[Sebastian S.]

Hmm, maybe sp. blue is P. sazimai ?

KLIK

KLIK

KLIK

 

[Zoltan]

I'd say there's a good chance of it being P. sazimai. The spider(s) in the pictures agrees with the description of P. sazimai in color, straight fovea, and raised cephalic region. More importantly the poster here says they were found "north of Minas Gerais" (state) of Brazil. I don't know if he means north from the state itself or the northern part of the state, but in any case, north of Minas Gerais is Bahia state - the location agrees with the distribution of P. sazimai.

 

[esotericman]

Thank you for posting this. I certainly hope a few people get a look at the data matrix used for this cladistic analysis. It might go a LONG way to helping people understand how stringent the work needs to be. Furthermore, how much work is needed to get the systematics correct.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Have any of these mysteriously shown up in the US yet?

 

[fartkowski]

Wow, very nice.

Thanks for posting this Zoltan.

 

[Kirk]

Thank you for posting this. I certainly hope a few people get a look at the data matrix used for this cladistic analysis. It might go a LONG way to helping people understand how stringent the work needs to be. Furthermore, how much work is needed to get the systematics correct.

Just be careful about accepting their results. It's amazing people still use character weighting and additive coding.

I wish I could get our library to subscribe to Zootaxa.

 

[esotericman]

Oh, I in no way condoned the work, I hadn't even read the entire mats and methods. I do wish more people in the hobby understood more of the process.

 

[Travis K]

Hmm, interesting. But what is more interesting than human observations and labels is the fact that this is one very beautiful T in the picture links.

 

[Steve Nunn]

Just be careful about accepting their results. It's amazing people still use character weighting and additive coding.

You mean folk like Pablo Goloboff, Kevin Nixon, or maybe Wheeler??? Those cladistic applications are rellevant in many situations, to assume otherwise is, in my opinion, wrong Additive coding is one thing, but character weighting is critical in many circumstances, to say otherwise, well, I beg to differ with you.

Steve

Steve