''Tmesiphantes uru'' is a species of

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

in the subfamily

Theraphosinae The Theraphosinae are a large subfamily of Mygalomorphae spiders in the family Theraphosidae found primarily in the Neotropical realm. Genera The subfamily Theraphosinae includes these genera: * '' Abdomegaphobema'' * '' Acanthoscurria'' * '' ...

. It is endemic to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Taxonomy

The species was first described in 2014 as ''Melloleitaoina uru''. The specific name ''uru'' refers to the

Incan The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

myth, telling of the princess Inca Uru, who was transformed into a spider by the gods to do endless spinning. In 2019, it was transferred to the genus ''

Tmesiphantes ''Tmesiphantes'' is a genus of Brazilian Theraphosidae, tarantulas in the subfamily Theraphosinae that was first described by Eugène Simon, Eugène Louis Simon in 1892. The genera ''Magulla'' and ''Melloleitaoina'' were brought into Synonym (ta ...

''.

Distinguishing features

''Tmesiphantes uru'' has (in males) an obvious triangular tooth on the

embolus An embolus (; : emboli; from the Greek ἔμβολος "wedge", "plug") is an unattached mass that travels through the circulatory system, bloodstream and is capable of creating blockages. When an embolus Vascular occlusion, occludes a blood vess ...

, which is very curved. The female has elongated

spermatheca The spermatheca (pronounced : spermathecae ), also called ''receptaculum seminis'' (: ''receptacula seminis''), is an organ of the female reproductive tract in insects, e.g. ants, bees, some molluscs, Oligochaeta worms and certain other in ...

e with small granules. It can grow up to 16 mm and has reddish-brown legs, a brown and golden

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

, and a golden-brown urticating patch on the abdomen.

References

Theraphosidae Spiders of Argentina Spiders described in 2014 {{Theraphosidae-stub