Halodromus barbarae, Muster, 2009

Muster, Christoph, 2009, The Ebo-like running crab spiders in the Old World (Araneae, Philodromidae), ZooKeys 16 (16), pp. 47-73 : 58-60

Halodromus barbarae sp. n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:994C72B5-39E7-4520-8902-31614C7126B5

Figs 14 , 17-20

Ebo spec. (? patellaris Wunderlich, 1987 ) – Schmidt and Krause 1996: 267-268, fig. 7 (misidentification).

Etymology. The species is named after Dr Barbara Thaler-Knoflach in recognition of her merits in the exploration of theridiid spiders of the Mediterranean basin and beyond. Noun in genitive case.

Material examined. Holotype. Male. SPAIN: Murcia: Cartagena , 37° 36’N, 0° 59’W, leg. E. Simon, specimen in ethanol with left palp dissected, with hand-written labels as follows “13388 Cartagena!” “ Halodromus barbarae Muster Holotype ” ( MNHN ES 13388 ) . Paratypes. EGYPT: Aswan: 1♀, Assuan synanthropic, 24° 4’N, 32° 55’E, 22 June 1975, leg. Kübelböck ( MNHG). ISRAEL: Southern District: 1♀, Arava Valley, ‘Iddan, 30° 47’N, 35° 17’E, 2 September 2008, D-Vac leg. V. Hochmann ( TAU). SAUDI ARABIA: Eastern Province: 1♁, Al-Khobar, 26° 17’N, 50° 12’E, 12 January 1983, leg. E. Heiss ( MNHG). SPAIN: Murcia: 3♀, 2 juv., Cartagena, 37° 36’N, 0° 59’W, leg. E. Simon ( MNHN ES 13388).

Diagnosis. Males are characterized by the shape of the embolus (“foxtailed”) and by the RTA reduced to a small bulge ( Fig. 17 ). Females show a unique shape of the receptacula ( Fig. 20 ).

Description. Measurements. Male (n=2): total length 2.05-3.0, CL 0.9-1.39, CW 0.95-1.45, ClyH 0.11-0.21, OL 1.25-1.9, OW 1.0-1.4. Leg I 3.77-6.2 [1.45, 0.55, 1.25, 1.1, 0.64], FemII 2.65. Eye sizes and interdistances: AME 0.08-0.11, PME 0.04-0.06, AME–AME 0.1-0.14, AME–ALE 0.05, PME–PME 0.16-0.21, PME– PLE 0.09-0.12, ALE–PME 0.1-0.13. Pedipalp: PFem 0.36-0.56, PPat 0.15-0.24, PatApo 0.8-0.13, PTib 0.18-0,26, CyL 0.44-0.58, CyW 0.2-0.3. AME size index: 0.073 -0.084. PME interdistance index: 1.72-1.76. Clypeus height index: 0.12-0.15. Leg II length index: 1.51.

Female (n = 5): total length 3.6 (2.6-5.1), CL 1.2 (1.05-1.35), CW 1.36 (1.15- 1.55), ClyH 0.18 (0.16-0.22), OL 2.55 (1.8-3.2), OW 2.07 (1.45-2.7). Leg I 5.26 (4.18-6.15) [1.58, 0.58, 1.31, 1.08, 0.71], FemII 2.29 (1.85-2.7). Eye sizes and inter- distances: AME 0.1, PME 0.064, AME–AME 0.1, AME–ALE 0.046, PME–PME 0.21, PME–PML 0.12, ALE–PME 0.13. AME size index: 0.075 (0.061 -0.087). PME interdistance index: 1.78 (1.59-2.09). Clypeus height index: 0.14 (0.11-0.15). LegII length index: 1.47 (1.46-1.48).

Colour. Pale species. Dorsal shield of prosoma ( Fig. 14 ) light brown with yellowish median band that extends to posterior margin, posterior edges with whitish pubescence, allatum with radiating, furcated stripes of dark spots, whitish patches along longitudinal allatal stripes, metadiscus a central whitish W-sign, mesodiscus with inconspicuous pattern. Clypeus whitish, chelicerae uniformly beige. Sternum uniformly whitish with long pubescence. Legs yellowish-brown, mottled (particularly at prolateral-ventral side of femora), faint annulations distal at femora and basal and distal at tibia. Opisthosoma whitish grey with lanceolate cardiac mark, some dark patches and four to six chevrons in posterior half. Venter whitish grey.

Pedipalp ( Figs 17-18 ). Patella with shortest apophysis among all known congeners, barely half as long as tibia. Tibia with RTA reduced to a low bulge. Cymbial tip less than one third of CyL. Cymbium length (CyL) 0.44-0.58, width (CyW) 0.2-0.3,

ratio CyL/cephalothorax width 0.40-0.46. Subtegulum visible in ventral view. Anterior border of tegulum bulged, PTA situated near this bulge, hooked, tip pointing ventrally. Sperm duct symmetric, opening in 7:30 o’clock position. Conductor largely hidden behind embolus, in ventral view protruding at prolateral side of embolus. Embolus not clearly divided in basal and distal part, foxtail-shaped, embolus tip straight, projecting beyond anterior border of bulb, pointing to cymbial tip.

Epigyne-vulva ( Figs 19-20 ). Median septum with almost parallel margins, more than three times as long as wide, stretched grooves at both sides of median septum. Posterior guide pockets wide at epigastric furrow, anterior guide pockets small, moderately sclerotized. Receptacula kidney-shaped, in close contact. Glandular heads in lateral-distal position.

Remarks, distribution and habitat. Specimens from the Middle East are considerably smaller than those from Cartagena. However, there are no differences in the structure of the male and female genitalia, consequently there is no reason to doubt their conspecifity. The occurrence on the Iberian Peninsula needs to be confirmed, since the original labels of the type series from the Simon collection contained no other information than “13388 Cartagena!”. This locality is somehow suspect because it is the single record of the genus from Europe. Given the wide range of H. patellaris and H. patellidens , this distribution is not entirely implausible, but at the same time it can not be excluded that Simon referred to the ancient city of Carthage in Tunisia. The species may also occur on the eastern Canary Islands. Schmidt and Krause (1996) illustrated the epigynum of a female from El Jable, Fuerteventura (mounted epigynum lost, Schmidt and Krause 1996: 268) that they provisionally allocated to Ebo patellaris , but they referred to differences from the original description by Wunderlich (1987). This figure corresponds well to H. barbarae , while it certainly does not show H. patellaris . No details on habitat were available from any of the original labels accompanying the specimens.

Figures

Figures 7-16. 7, 11 Ebo pepinensis from Utah Lake 8, 12 Titanebo parabolis from Utah 9, 15 Halodromus patellaris, from Monastir 10 Philodromus lepidus from Kebili, Tunisia 13 Halodromus patellidens from Kuwait 14 Halodromus barbarae sp. n. from Cartagena 16 Halodromus gershomi sp. n. from Massawa 7-10 Female clypeus and chelicerae, frontal view 11-16 Female cephalothorax, dorsal view. Scale lines = 0.5 mm.

Figures 17-20. Halodromus barbarae sp. n. from Cartagena. 17-18 Left male palp (17 ventral, 18 retrolateral) 19 Epigyne, ventral 20 Vulva, dorsal. Scale line = 0.1 mm.