Chaetacis incisa ( Walckenaer, 1841 )

Magalhães, Ivan L. F. & Santos, Adalberto J., 2011, Two new species and taxonomic notes on the Neotropical spiny orb-weaving spiders Micrathena and Chaetacis (Araneae: Araneidae), with remarks on the development of Micrathena excavata, Zootaxa 2983, pp. 39-56 : 54-55

Chaetacis incisa ( Walckenaer, 1841)

Plectana incisa Walckenaer, 1841: 195 . Female from Brazil deposited in MNHN, Paris, lost. Chaetacis incisa, Mello-Leitão 1932: 97 ; Platnick 2011 (complete nomenclatural history).

This species, as all Plectana species described by Walckenaer in his Histoire Naturelle des Insectes (1841), was not illustrated. The holotype could not be found in MNHN in Paris (A.J. Santos, pers. obs.). Levi (1985) stated only that it is unrecognizable except that it is not a Chaetacis . Nevertheless, Platnick (2011) continues to count the species as valid. The original description is confusing, but the excavated abdomen with paired spines, the brown carapace with yellow borders and the fourth leg longer than the first make it fairly certain that C. incisa either belongs to Chaetacis or, more likely, since there is no mention to cephalic tubercles or spines, to Micrathena . Nevertheless, both the description and the reported type locality ( Brazil) are too unspecific to allow the correct identity of the species. Hence, we consider it as a nomen dubium.