Clubiona decora Blackwall, 1859

Bosmans, Robert, Henrard, Arnaud, Benhalima, Souâd & Kherbouche-Abrous, Ourida, 2017, The genus Clubiona Latreille, 1904 (Araneae: Clubionidae) in the Maghreb, with notes on the genevensis group and new records from the Mediterranean Region, Zootaxa 4353 (1), pp. 1-28 : 4

Clubiona decora Blackwall, 1859

( Figs 1–8 ; Map 1)

Clubiona decora Blackwall, 1859: 256 (♂, type series from Madeira, without further locality, J. Y. Johnson leg.; not examined, deposition unknown); Wunderlich, 1987: 241, 434, fig. 645b (♀).

Microclubiona decora ; Wunderlich, 1992: 35, 482, fig. 758 (♂).

Diagnosis. Clubiona decora differs from all other species of the genevensis group by the male palpal tibia slightly longer than wide ( Fig. 3 ), whereas it is nearly twice as long as wide in C. diniensis and as long as wide in the other species, the narrow and sharp RTA, and the origin of the embolus in the median part of bulbus Fig. 4 ), which is in the basal or distal part in the other species. Females are recognized by the epigyne with ventral margin interrupted medially, the small spermathecae distantly separated from the longitudinal copulatory duct ( Figs 6–8 ) and the thin, convoluted copulatory ducts.

Description. See Wunderlich (1987, 1992).

Material examined. PORTUGAL: Madeira: Lombo do Coelho , 1 ♂ 1 ♀, 13.V.2005, J. Van Keer leg. (CRB).

Distribution. Kulczyński (1899) compared Clubiona specimens from France and Germany with material from Madeira and identified them as the same species, although their fig. 105 clearly shows the elongated tibial apophysis of C. decora and fig 101–104, 106 the much shorter tibial apophysis of C. genevensis . This confusion of Clubiona decora with C. genevensis has led to several misidentifications which sometimes still figure in modern catalogues. Citations of Bertkau (1890, 1893) from Italy and Portugal, of Chyzer & Kulczyński (1897) from Croatia, Hungary and Romania, of Kulczyński (1898) from Austria and of Lessert (1904) from Switzerland are based on Chyzer & Kulczyński’s view (1897) and must be considered incorrect. Denis (1962) emphasizes there are clearly two different species which are readily separated by the shape of their genital organs. Tyschchenko (1971) mentions C. decora from Russia, and this was already corrected by Mikhailov & Fet in 1986, but is still mentioned in the World Spider Catalogue (2017) under C. decora . Until further proof, C. decora is limited to Madeira, Porto Santo and the Azores. Citations from Portugal, Italy and the Balkans mentioned in Nentwig et al. (2017) probably refer to other species of the genevensis group.

Figures

FIGURES 1–8. Clubiona decora Blackwall, 1859: male and female (from Madeira); 1 male habitus, dorsal view; 2 female habitus, dorsal view; 3 male palp, retrolateral view; 4 same, ventral view. 5 detail of the retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA) of the male palp, dorsal view (arrow on needle-like extension of RTA); 6 epigyne, ventral view; 7 vulva, ventral view; 8 same, dorsal view. Abbreviatures: A = atrium, CD = longitudinal copulatory duct, CS = cymbial modified setae, S = spermathecae. Scale bars:1, 2 = 1 mm; 3, 4, 6–8) = 0.2 mm; 5 = 0.1 mm.