First record of Theraphosa apophysis ( Tinter , 1991 ) ( Araneae , Mygalomorphae , Theraphosidae ) in Brazil

We present the first record for Theraphosa apophysis (Tinter, 1991) for Brazil. A male of T. apophysis was collected in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas state, Brazil. This is the third species of Theraphosa in Brazil along with T. blondi (Latreille, 1804) and T. stirmi Rudloff & Weinmann, 2010.

Theraphosa species are characterized by the lack of long hairs on patella and tibia, presence of stridulatory setae on prolateral coxae I and II, and presence of a single fused spermatheca in females (Bertani 2001, Rudloff andWeinmann 2010).
They can be found on holes in the ground (used as burrows) near tributary streams in primary forest (Luizão 2004).These spiders prey on a large variety of invertebrates in the forest soil and can even capture small vertebrates (Carvalho et al. 2016).However, the ecology of these spiders is still poorly known.To date, only T. stirmi and T. blondi have been reported to Brazil (Schmidt 1993, Carvalho et al. 2017), and despite its occurrence in neighboring countries such as Colombia and Venezuela, T. apophysis has not been recorded in Brazil.
Herein, we record for the first time T. apophysis (Tinter 1991) for São Gabriel da Cachoeira, state of Amazonas, Brazil.The collection area is near to the northern border of Brazil.It is within dense tropical rain forest.The climate is hot and humid climate, with mean annual temperature of 26.4 °C and the rain precipitation 2,909 mm.

Methods
The specimen is deposited in the Invertebrate Zoology Collection at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA).Specimen identification done according to Tinter (1991) and Bertani (2001).All photographs were taken under a Leica M205A stereomicroscope and using the Leica application suite version 4.10.0.The images were edited in Adobe Photoshop CC (2017) and the distribution map (Fig. 1) was created using SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010).
Identification.Males of T. apophysis can be easily identified by having a tibial apophysis on leg I, which is lacking in T. blondi and T. stirmi (Fig. 2D, E).Females of T. apophysis differ from those of T. blondi by presence of a stridulatory organ in coxa I and II (females of T. blondi have only one coxa I) and from T. stirmi by having patella with long curved hairs (Tinter, 1991, Bertani, 2001, Rudloff and Weinmann 2010).

Discussion
Theraphosa apophysis, previously known from Venezuela (type locality) and Colombia (Jimenez 2004), is now recorded for Amazon region of Brazil.Therefore, our work confirms the presence of all 3 species of Theraphosa in the Amazon biome, with current distribution in 6 countries: T. apophysis (Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil); T. blondi (Brazil, Suriname, and French Guiana), and T. stirmi (Guyana and Brazil) (Schmidt 1993, Rudloff and Weinmann 2010, Carvalho et al. 2017, World Spider Catalog 2018).The new record of T. apophysis is important not only because it is the first time the species is collected in Brazil, but because this is the first reliable record for this species in the country, as most of the known specimens are from the pet trade.The only confirmed record with males and females of T. apophysis seems to be from Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela (Rudloff and Weimann 2010).
The distribution T. apophysis seems to be restricted to the central Amazon.However, new studies are needed to confirm the distribution range in Amazon region.In addition, new faunistic surveys in remote areas in the Amazon may provide new records of Theraphosa species in Brazil.anonymous reviewer greatly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.MQA thanks Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for a doctoral scholarship, and LS thanks CAPES for a postdoctoral grant (Programa Nacional de Pós-Doutorado-PNPD/Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação da Universidade Estadual de Roraima-PPGE/UERR).