Epicadus caudatus ( Mello-Leitão, 1929 )

Machado, Miguel, Teixeira, Renato Augusto & Lise, Arno Antonio, 2018, There and back again: More on the taxonomy of the crab spiders genus Epicadus (Thomisidae: Stephanopinae), Zootaxa 4382 (3), pp. 501-530 : 507-508

Epicadus caudatus ( Mello-Leitão, 1929)

Figs 15A–C

Tobias caudatus Mello-Leitão, 1929: 88 , figs 187–188. Machado et al. 2015: 567, figs 1–11.

Epicadus caudatus (Mello-Leitão) . Machado et al. 2017: 448, figs 3A, S2B, S5D, S6F, S9C, S10A, S15A.

Type material: Holotype (designated by Mello-Leitão 1929): female, Tijuca [22°57'31.38"S, 43°16'38.56"W, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil] ( MNHN 26036 , examined).

Other material examined. VENEZUELA: Aragua: 1 male , Rancho Grande ( National Park , 1100m), 10°04'00"N, 67°32'36"W, 1960, J. Ojasti ( MCZ) . BRAZIL: Rio de Janeiro: 1 female , Rio de Janeiro ( Tijuca ), 22°55'57"S, 43°14'27"W, 1902, E.R. Wagner ( MNHN 26016 ) . Rio Grande do Sul: 1male, São Francisco de Paula ( Potreiro Velho ), 29°26'45"S, 50°34'50"W, 21–24 March 1996, A.A. Lise ( MCTP 9855 ) ; 1 female, Novo Hamburgo , 29°41'16"S, 51°08'00"W, 17 June 1986, C.J. Becker ( MCNZ 15170 ) .

Diagnosis. Females of E. caudatus are very similar to those of E. pustulosus in the cryptic bark-dweller habitus with predominant dark-brown body coloration, squared leg segments and knobby femora, however, they can be distinguished at first sight by the presence of vivid orange/reddish blister-shaped setae sockets on the ventral surface of their anterior femora ( Fig. 15C ), while in females of E. pustulosus these structures are yellow ( Fig. 15E ). Females of E. caudatus also present a large median septum on the epigynal plate separating the exposed copulatory openings. Males can be recognized by the half-moon shaped stains on the dorsum of the opisthosoma, wide and stout opisthosomal projections and by the DTA pointing upwards.

Description. See Machado et al. (2015).

Distribution. BRAZIL: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Amazonas; VENEZUELA: Aragua; PUERTO RICO: Mora ( Fig. 17A ).

Figures

FIGURE 15. Female specimens in vivo. A–C Epicadus caudatus (Mello-Leitão, 1929) A nuptial guard, B egg-sac guarding behavior, C diagnostic orange blister-shaped setae sockets); D E. granulatus Banks 1909; E Epicadus pustulosus (Mello- Leitão, 1929), diagnostic yelloW blister-shaped setae sockets. Photo credits: Alfredo Colón Archilla (A, B, C); Morley Read (D); Paul Bertner (E).

FIGURE 17. Data of distribution records of Epicadus species compiled from Machado et al. (2015, 2017); Silva-Moreira and Machado (2016); present study.