Tomomingi szutsi, Wesołowska & Haddad, 2013

Wesołowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2013, New data on the jumping spiders of South Africa (Araneae: Salticidae), African Invertebrates 54 (1), pp. 177-177 : 229-232

Tomomingi szutsi sp. n.

Figs 21, 99, 100, 156–165

Etymology: The species is named after Támas Szűts, one of the authors of the genus.

Diagnosis: This species is closely related to Tomomingi holmi ( Prószyński & Żabka, 1983) from the Aberdare Mountains in Kenya. The male may be distinguished by the median apophysis of the bulb, which is bifid in T. szutsi sp. n. but hook-shaped in T. holmi , and by the shape of cymbium, which forms a retrolateral enlargement basally (without such an enlargement in T. holmi ). The females are difficult to tell apart, but the course of the distal part of the seminal ducts and the shape of the spermathecae are different (compare Fig. 164 herein with fig. 32 in Prószyński & Żabka 1983).

Description:

Measurements (♂ / ♀). Cephalothorax: length 2.0/2.2, width 1.4/1.6, height 0.8/0.8. Abdomen: length 1.9/2.4, width 1.3/1.4. Eye field: length 1.0/1.0, anterior width 1.3/1.4, posterior width 1.2/1.3.

Male.

General appearance as in Figs 21 and 99. Carapace oval ( Fig. 156), moderately high, with constriction behind posterior median eyes ( Figs 21, 157); posterior slope steep, fovea clearly visible, thoracic part with striae radiating from fovea ( Fig. 156). Eye field occupying half of carapace length; eye pattern typical for Hisponinae : eyes on tubercles, posterior medians set very far to the anterior, on the same tubercles as the anterior laterals ( Fig. 158). Colouration of carapace brown, slightly darker at margins, eyes with black rings; some brown bristles near eyes and sparse dark hairs on thoracic part. Clypeus low, with few white hairs. Chelicerae brown, pluridentati, with 5 or 6 teeth on both margins ( Fig. 159); labium and sternum dark brown, endites slightly paler. Abdomen oval, greyish brown, with broad cream median stripe ( Fig. 99); dorsum clothed in brownish hairs. Venter dark, paler along midline. Spinnerets long, dark. Legs brown, covered in dense dark hairs; first legs with three pairs of short ventral spines on tibiae and one pair on metatarsi. Pedipalps brown, with long, dense, dark hairs; palpal tibia without apophysis, cymbium narrow, with enlargement near base on prolateral side ( Figs 161, 163); bulb rounded, with small median bicuspid apophysis; embolus with broad base, spirally coiled ( Figs 161, 162).

Female.

Similar to male, but colouration clearly lighter and body less hairy ( Fig. 100). Epigyne rounded, gonopores placed centrally ( Fig. 164); seminal ducts weakly sclerotized, broad initially, forming a loop; accessory glands large ( Fig. 165).

Holotype: ♂ SOUTH AFRICA: Limpopo: Soutpansberg, Lajuma Mountain Retreat , 23°02.414'S 29°26.687'E, base of grass tussocks, 2.ii.2008, C. Haddad (NCA, 2008/535).

Paratype: 1♀ together with holotype (NCA, 2008/535).

Distribution: Known only from the type locality ( Fig. 178). This is the first species in the genus recorded from subtropical southern Africa.

Habitat and biology: Similar to its congeners, T. szutsi sp. n. was also collected in montane habitats, but the two known specimens were collected in grassland patches within a savanna woodland and forest mosaic. This contrasts with the other species in the genus, which are primarily forest-dwelling.

Remarks: In their revision of the genus Tomocyrba Simon, 1900 , Szűts and Scharff (2009) established the genus Tomomingi , containing six species distributed in the montane rain forests of East Africa (except for a single species known from Guinea). This species shares the obvious synapomorphies for Tomomingi : the absence of a retrolateral tibial apophysis in the male palp and the presence of three pairs of ventral spines on the first tibiae (fewer in the related genera Tomocyrba and Tomobella Szűts & Scharff, 2009 ). Genus Ureta gen. n.

Etymology: The genus name is an arbitrary combination of letters. Gender feminine.

Type species: Euophrys quadrispinosa Lawrence, 1938 .

Diagnosis: Ureta is a medium-sized salticid with a body shape typical for the family. Both sexes have unidentate chelicerae with a large retromarginal tooth. The male has pedipalps with a short tibia, a tegulum with a large prolateral tooth-like apophysis, and a long, thin, whip-shaped embolus with a large tooth at its base. The female has an epigyne with a clearly developed double pocket at the epigastric furrow, and long seminal ducts that form several loops. The structure of the genitalia of both sexes is unlike those of other salticids. The subfamilial affinities of the genus remain unknown, although it clearly does not belong to Euophryinae , wherein the type species was previously placed, based on the genitalic structure of both sexes.