Lasiodora fallax ( Bertkau, 1880 )

Bertani, Rogério, 2023, Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Araneae, Theraphosidae) with notes on related genera, Zootaxa 5390 (1), pp. 1-116 : 102-103

Lasiodora fallax ( Bertkau, 1880) nomen dubium

Crypsidromus fallax Bertkau, 1880: 27 , pl. 1, f. 8; Petrunkevitch 1911: 55; Roewer 1942: 227.

Hapalopus fallax : Mello-Leitão 1923: 159; Petrunkevitch 1939: 273; Bonnet 1957: 2085.

Lasiodora fallax : World Spider Catalog 2023.

Type material. Female from Brazil, state of Rio de Janeiro, Tijuca , not found, herein considered lost .

Remark. Bertkau (1880) described a young female from Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and gave information on color pattern, measurements of legs, spines and illustrated a urticating hair (for the first time in the literature) of type I according to the classification of Cooke et al. (1972). Even though the author illustrated the female genitalia of other mygalomorph species described in the same paper (something very unusual at that time, and anticipating the taxonomic value of these structures) he did not illustrate the spermathecae of this new species. Thus, possibly the specimen was an immature male. Despite the detailed description including urticating hair type, it is not possible to recognize this species. There are at least three theraphosine species occurring in Rio de Janeiro that have type I urticating hair and fit Bertkau’s (1880) description (pers. obs.). The type was not found, and is probably lost, as are the majority of non-european types of Bertkau ( Levi 1991: 203). Therefore, I consider Lasiodora fallax a nomen dubium.