Opopaea Simon

Platnick, Norman I. & Dupérré, Nadine, 2009, The Goblin Spider Genera Opopaea and Epectris (Araneae, Oonopidae) in the New World, American Museum Novitates 3649, pp. 1-44 : 3-4

Opopaea Simon

Opopaea Simon, 1891: 560 (type species by monotypy Opopaea deserticola Simon ).

Myrmecoscaphiella Mello-Leitão, 1926: 1 (type species by original designation Myrmecoscaphiella borgmeyeri Mello-Leitão ). NEW SYNONYMY.

DIAGNOSIS: Males of Opopaea are easily recognized by the unusual conformation of the palpal patella, which is oddly enlarged and originates subbasally from the palpal femur (figs. 55, 56, 61, 62, 93, 94, 99, 100). A similarly modified palpal patella occurs in some other Old World taxa, such as those currently assigned to Camptoscaphiella Caporiacco (1934) , but in those males, the palpal cymbium and bulb are separate, rather than fused as in Opopaea . In the New World, males are likely to be confused only with those of Marsupopaea Cooke (1972) , which can easily be distinguished by the large sternal excavation that provides a ‘‘pouch’’ in which the palps are held ( Cooke, 1972: fig. 10). Females are more difficult to characterize, but in the New World they are most likely to be confused with those of Brignolia Dumitresco and Georgesco (1983) , which are similar in appearance but can be distinguished by the presence of a central elevated projection on the epigastric region ( Saaristo, 2001: fig. 142A, B).

DESCRIPTION: A detailed generic description has been provided by Saaristo and Marusik (2008: 18), and improvements on that summary must await a full revision of the Old World fauna.

MISPLACED SPECIES: We discuss here the specific names that are currently assigned to the genus and are based on New World specimens, but do not actually belong to Opopaea .

Opopaea cupida ( Keyserling, 1881) was originally described in Oonops , but Simon (1891) noted the similarities of this species to O. deserticola , and the name was later formally transferred to Opopaea by Simon (1893a: 299). Brignoli (1975: 228) pointed out that O. cupida might be a senior synonym of Marsupopaea sturmi Cooke (1972) , which is the type species of that genus. A comparison of the two holotypes, both from Colombia, confirms Brignoli’s conjecture (at least at the generic level), and O. cupida is here transferred to Marsupopaea cupida , NEW COMBINATION.

Three species from the United States, O. floridana ( Banks, 1896, originally described in Gamasomorpha ) from Florida, O. meditata Gertsch and Davis (1936) from Texas, and O. sedata Gertsch and Mulaik (1940) from Texas, are based on females that differ from those of Opopaea in having the much more heavily sclerotized epigastric region characteristic of members of the Gamasomorpha complex of genera. Because the limits of Gamasomorpha itself remain to be determined, we leave these species in Opopaea pending their examination by Ricardo Ott as part of his studies on the Gamasomorpha complex. The same is true for O. calona Chickering (1969) from Florida, the male of which has an unexpanded palpal patella and palpal bulb morphology unlike those of true Opopaea .

Opopaea recondita Chickering (1951) from Panama has an epigastric region with a central elevated projection, and the name is therefore transferred to Brignolia recondita , NEW COMBINATION. It may well prove to be a senior synonym of the type species of that genus, Brignolia cubana Dumitresco and Georgesco (1983) , which (like the three species treated below) is seemingly synanthropic and pantropical.

Finally, two more recently described species from southern Brazil, O. ita Ott (2003) and O. viamao Ott (2003) , differ from true Opopaea in having the posterior median eyes reduced or absent, and will be placed elsewhere in future contributions by Ricardo Ott.

SYNONYMY: Mello-Leitão (1926) provided no characters to differentiate Myrmecoscaphiella from Opopaea , and there appears to be none.