Myrmarachne solitaria Peckham & Peckham, 1903

Figs 82–86 Myrmarachne solitaria Peckham & Peckham, 1903: 250, plate 29, fig. 5; Wanless 1978: 75, fig. 46a–l; Wesołowska & Haddad 2009: 65, figs 124–126.

Diagnosis: The species belongs to the formicaria -group (Wanless 1978). It is related to M. kiboschensis Lessert, 1925, M. leleupi Wanless, 1978 and M. uelensis Wanless, 1978, but the male may be easily distinguished from them by the lack of an apophysis on the cheliceral fang, while the female has relatively simpler looped spermathecae.

Description:

Measurements (♂ / ♀). Cephalothorax: length 1.9/2.0, height 0.7/0.6. Eye field: length 0.9/0.9, anterior width 1.0/1.0, posterior width 1.1/1.1. Abdomen: length 2.1/3.0, width 1.1/1.8.

Male.

Small, ant-like spider. Carapace higher in cephalic part, dark brown; eye field black with lustre, with reticulate puncturing; two trichobothria and a few white scales in furrow. Chelicerae long, fang without apophysis (Fig. 82). Sternum dark brown, labium with light tip, whitish streaks along endites. Abdomen dark brown, blackish posteriorly, with sparse white hairs in constriction; venter dark; posterior spinnerets dark, anteriors yellowish. Legs slender, brown, with darker lines along sides of patellae and tibiae, distal segments yellowish. Pedipalps dark; tibial apophysis small and only slightly curved; distal section of embolus passing over bulb (Figs 83, 84).

Female.

Description in Wesołowska and Haddad (2009). Epigyne small, with single median pouch (Fig. 85); internal structure simple (Fig. 86). A large, granulate accessory gland leads into the seminal duct between its membranous and sclerotized parts (visible only in right spermatheca. A similar structure has previously only been observed once in salticids, in Ballus chalybeius (Walckenaer, 1802) – see Wesołowska and Tomasiewicz 2008).

Material examined: Maseru district: 1♀ 1 imm. Mohale Dam, Islands, 29°25'S 28°06'E, 2060 m, under rocks, 14.xii.2003 (NCA 2013 /3089) . Qacha’s Nek district: 1♂ Near Maghoareng village, 30°03'S 28°53'E, 2200 m, under rocks on mountainside, 6.xi.2003 (NCA 2013 /3090) . Quthing district: 1♂ Letšeng-la-Letsie, 30°19'S 28°10'E, 2360 m, under rocks along lakeside, 12.xi.2003 (NCA 2013 /3091) .

Distribution: Species previously known from South Africa. Recorded here from three isolated localities in southern and central Lesotho (Fig. 93).