Pronophaea proxima ( Lessert, 1923 ) Lessert, 1923

Haddad, Charles R. & Bosselaers, Jan, 2010, A revision of the genus Medmassa Simon, 1887 (Araneae: Corinnidae) in the Afrotropical Region, Zootaxa 2361, pp. 1-12 : 9

Pronophaea proxima ( Lessert, 1923) comb. nov.

( Figs 31–32 )

Remarks. The holotype male of Medmassa proxima is similar to male P. natalica in general morphology ( Fig. 31 ), eye arrangement, leg spination, abdominal sclerotisation and general genitalic structure. The fine wirelike median apophysis, sickle-shaped conductor and short distal embolus of the male palp ( Fig. 32 ) are consistent with a placement in Pronophaea .

The species identified by Bosselaers & Jocqué (2002) as M. proxima is, in fact, a new Pronophaea species closely related to P. proxima , but with a shorter and curved male palpal tibial apophysis (compare Fig. 32 with fig. 3I in Bosselaers & Jocqué 2002). This same new Pronophaea species was recently included in a cladistic analysis including many corinnid genera and was placed as sister to P. natalica ( Haddad et al. 2009) , which supports the transfer of M. proxima to Pronophaea .

Figures

FIGURES 25 – 34. Digital microscope photographs of Pronophaea natalica Simon, 1897 female (25 – 27) and male (28 – 30), Pronophaea proxima (Lessert, 1923) male (31, 32) and Pronophaea vidua (Lessert, 1923) female (33, 34), all from South Africa. (25, 28, 31, 33) habitus, dorsal view; (26, 29) habitus, lateral view; (27, 34) epigyne, ventral view, (30, 32) palp, ventral view. Abbreviations: CD—conductor; EM—embolus; EP—epigynal plug; MA—median apophysis; MSmodified distal cymbial seta; PES—post-epigastric sclerite. Scale bars: 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33 = 1.0 mm; 27, 30, 32, 34 = 0.25 mm.