''Trichopelma'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
n and
Caribbean tarantulas
Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...
first described by
Eugène Simon in 1888.
Taxonomy
This genus was erected by
Eugène Simon in 1888 with ''
Trichopelma illetabile'' and the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
''
Trichopelma nitidum''.
A major review of
mygalomorph
The Mygalomorphae, or mygalomorphs, are an infraorder of spiders, and comprise one of three major groups of living spiders with over 3000 species, found on all continents except Antarctica. Many members are known as trapdoor spiders due to t ...
spiders by
Robert J. Raven
Robert John Raven is an Australian arachnologist, being the Head of Terrestrial Biodiversity and the Senior Curator (Arachnida) at the Queensland Museum. Dr Raven has described many species of spider in Australia and elsewhere, and is spider bite ...
in 1985 led to the genus being greatly enlarged, merging it with other genera ''Hapalopinus'', ''Leptofischelia'', ''Merothele'', ''Obaerarius'' and ''Stothis''. Raven placed this expanded genus in the family
Barychelidae.
In 1994, he proposed moving ''Trichopelma'' to the related family
Theraphosidae
Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...
, but without any new evidence, the move was not generally accepted. In 2014
José P. L. Guadanucci carried out a morphological
phylogenetic analysis
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
of some mygalomorph genera, including ''Trichopelma''. The study supported Raven's hypothesis, and the genus was moved to Theraphosidae as a member of a re-limited subfamily
Ischnocolinae sensu stricto.
Species
it contains 22 species:
* ''
Trichopelma affine''
(Simon, 1892) - St. Vincent
* ''
Trichopelma banksia''
Özdikmen & Demir, 2012 - Cuba
* ''
Trichopelma bimini''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Bahamas
* ''
Trichopelma coenobita''
(Simon, 1889) - Venezuela
* ''
Trichopelma cubanum''
(Simon, 1903) - Cuba
* ''
Trichopelma fulvum''
(Bryant, 1948) - Haiti
* ''
Trichopelma gabrieli''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Dominican Republic
* ''
Trichopelma goloboffi''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Cuba
* ''
Trichopelma huffi''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Dominican Republic
* ''
Trichopelma illetabile''
Simon, 1888 - Brazil
* ''
Trichopelma insulanum''
(Petrunkevitch, 1926) - St. Thomas
* ''
Trichopelma juventud''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Cuba
* ''
Trichopelma laselva''
Valerio, 1986 - Costa Rica
* ''
Trichopelma laurae''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Cuba
* ''
Trichopelma loui''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Jamaica
* ''
Trichopelma maculatum''
(Banks, 1906) - Bahama Is.
* ''
Trichopelma nitidum''
Simon, 1888 (
type) - Hispaniola
* ''
Trichopelma platnicki''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Jamaica
* ''
Trichopelma steini''
(Simon, 1889) - Venezuela
* ''
Trichopelma tostoi''
Mori & Bertani, 2020 - Dominican Republic
* ''
Trichopelma venadense''
(Valerio, 1986) - Costa Rica
* ''
Trichopelma zebra''
(Petrunkevitch, 1925) - Panama
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2709593
Theraphosidae
Theraphosidae genera
Spiders of Central America
Spiders of South America
Taxa named by Eugène Simon