Pholcus luding, Tong & Li, 2010

Tong, Yanfeng & Li, Shuqiang, 2010, Eight new spider species of the genus Pholcus (Araneae, Pholcidae) from China, Zootaxa 2355, pp. 35-55 : 47-51

Pholcus luding sp. nov.

Figs 2J–L, Q, 11A–F

Type material: Holotype male, CHINA: Sichuan Province, Luding County, Hailuogou National Natural Reserve, Caohaizi (29°34.682´N, 102°00.375´E, alt. 2860 m), 6 October 2005, X. Xu & X. Zhang leg. Paratypes: 2 males and 4 females, same data as for holotype .

Etymology: The species name is a noun in apposition derived from the type locality.

Diagnosis: The new species is similar to P. dali Zhang & Zhu, 2009 , but can be distinguished by the marks on carapace and ocular area, the shapes of procursus and bulbal appendix (the medially protuberance distally branched, see fig. 11C), and the small pore plates of female genitalia.

Description: Male (holotype). Total length 4.69 (5.02 with clypeus), carapace width 1.52. Leg 1: 42.68 (10.71+0.71+10.56+18.13+2.57), tibia 2: 6.85, tibia 3: 4.28, tibia 4: 5.71; tibia 1 L/d: 83. Habitus as in figs 21J, K. Carapace yellow, with large brown marks medially; ocular area yellowish, with brown band at median and laterally; clypeus brown; sternum brownish (fig. 2L). Opisthosoma gray, with some spots dorsally and laterally. Distance PME–PME 0.24; diameter PME 0.16; distance PME–ALE 0.06; diameter AME 0.12. Chelicerae as in fig. 11D, with pair of black apophyses distally, pair of unsclerotized apophyses proximolaterally, and pair of tiny nipple-shaped prominences frontally. Palps as in figs 11A, B; bulbal appendix with a protuberance medially, the protuberance branched into two small apophyses distally (arrow in fig. 11C). Legs yellowish, leg I with darker rings on femora (subdistally) and tibiae (proximally and subdistally), but leg II–IV with darker rings on femora (proximally, medially and subdistally) and tibiae (proximally, medially and subdistally), without spines, curved and vertical hairs; tarsus 1 with some pseudosegments, but only about 8 distinct distally.

Variation: Tibia 1 in other males (n = 18): 8.99–13.14 (mean: 11.16).

Females: In general similar to males, but femur I with slightly distinctly dark rings medially. Tibia 1 (n = 2): 5.71, 7.42 (leg I lost in the other two specimens). Epigynum as in figs 2Q and 11E, brown with distinctive pattern; with a short cylindrical outgrowth. Dorsal view as in fig. 11F.

Distribution: Only known from type locality.