After examining specimens of the genera Nhandu Lucas, 1983, Proshapalopus Mello-Leitao, 1923, Pterinopelma and Vitalius Lucas, Silva & Bertani, 1993, a conspicuous tuft of setae on the trochanters and coxae drew our attention.
In our dataset, the occurrence of this character did not show any phylogenetic pattern, however in all species analyzed they were found on the pro-and retrolateral faces of the frontal coxae and trochanters in Lasiodora, Nhandu, Proshapalopus, Pterinopelma, Vitalius, Acanthoscurria juruenicola, A.
(2011), optimizations are as follows: characters 36 (plumose setae on coxae) and 37 (plumose setae on trochanters) emerged as homoplastic synapomorphies that support the clades (Lasiodora + Nhandu + Proshapalopus + Pterinopelma + Vitalius) and (Acanthoscurria juruenicola + A.
natalensis, Acanthoscurria paulensis, Lasiodora, Nhandu, Proshapalpus, Pterinopelma and Vitalius.
Interestingly, velvet setae, along with plumose setae, had not been noticed before in Theraphosinae, and spiders of the genera Nhandu, Proshapalopus, Pterinopelma and Vitalius bear only the plumose type, which are rather delicate compared to the velvet type; these genera are not yet known to produce an audible stridulating sound.
Revision, cladistic analysis, and zoogeography of Vitalius, Nhandu, and Proshapalopus; with notes on other Theraphosinae genera (Aranae, Theraphosidae).