Montenegro et al. (2018) reported the theraphosid spider genus Homoeomma Ausserer, 1871 from Chile and described a new species of this genus with distinctive red and black colouration, naming it Homoeomma chilensis Montenegro & Aguilera, 2018. Soon after, Sherwood et al. (2018) described Homoeomma bicolor also from Chile having the same colouration. In this work, we demonstrate these nominal species to be synonymous and H. chilensis is regarded as the valid senior synonym of H. bicolor following the Article 23 of the Code (Anonymous 1999). This case represents an instance where two independent scientific teams described the same taxon, in different journals published within a very short period of time of each other, respectively dated October and November of the same year, causing two available binominal names to exist for a single species (Anonymous 2019). Here we resolve this situation through synonymy, discuss an additional morphological character not mentioned in the original description by Montenegro et al. (2018) and note further intraspecific variation that exists for H. chilensis. Potential homonymy in Chilean theraphosid nomenclature is also discussed.

Bionomina 15: 69-73