Micaria pallipes (Lucas, 1846)

Fig. 12 A, B

Drassus pallipes Lucas, 1846: 227, pl. 14, Fig. 3.

Micaria pallipes Bosmans & Blick, 2000: 449, Figs 9 ̅12.

Micaria pallipes Levy, 2002: 116, Figs 8 ̅12.

Micaria septempunctata O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872: 250, pl. 16, Fig, 32. Wunderlich, 1980: 307, Figs 69a̅d. Micaria pallipes Tuneva & Esyunin, 2003: 233, Figs 15 ̅16.

not Micaria pallipes Haddad & Bosmans: 397, Figs 1 ̅3 (Misidentification?).

Diagnosis. The female of this species may be distingued from any other Micaria Westring by the three chambered appearance of the epigynal sclerotizations formed by the characteristic shape of the anterior margins and the opposing S-shaped lateral margins.

Material examined. 1 ♀, Cyprus, Fassouri Reed Beds, in grassland near reed beds, Akrotiri, 27.IV.2007, leg. Snazell. Castanilla marchesii Caporiacco, 1936: ♀ lectotype (designated by Haddad & Bosmans, 2013) and juvenile, el-Tallab, Buema, Libya [24°14'N, 23°21'E], 15.II.1933, leg. O. Marchesi, MZUF 271, Mag no. 2552.

Comparative material examined. Castanilla marchesii Caporiacco, 1936: ♀ lectotype (designated by Haddad & Bosmans, 2013) and juvenile, el-Tallab, Buema, Libya [24°14'N, 23°21'E], 15.II.1933, leg. O. Marchesi, MZUF 271, Mag no. 2552. Micaria septempunctata O.P.- Cambridge, 1872: ♂ syntype, Ain Ata, Lebanon (HECO, t. 92), ♀ syntype, Hasbeya, Lebanon (HECO, B. 346, t. 43).

Comments. Micaria pallipes is a well documented species, illustrated by multiple authors and recorded from several localities ranging from the Canary islands to southern Europe and from the East Mediterranean to the Urals and Kazakstan (for a complete list of records see World Spider Catalogue 2017). In his original description, Lucas (1846) referred to three transverse abdominal white bands (at the two edges of the abdomen, and one in the middle) and three additional median points like a triangle (from the original: “il est orné de trois bandes circulaires transversales blanches, l'une à la base, l'autre à l'extrémité, et la troisième au milieu; plus, trois points également blancs, disposés en triangle sur le milieu de la partie dorsale”). Levy (2002) gave a drawing of the abdomen with seven white spots (p. 116, Fig. 8), justifying its synonymy with M. septempunctata O.P.- Cambridge, 1872, earlier proposed by Bosmans & Blick (2000) (see also Fig. 12 B). In our specimen there are six white spots on the dorsal part of the abdomen (Fig. 12); the middle one is larger than the others and may well represent the two middle spots illustrated in Levy (2002). Searching the literature, our attention was caught by Figs 1 ̄ 3 in Haddad & Bosmans (2013), illustrating the lectotype of Castanilla marchesii Caporiacco, 1936 . In this publication the genus Castanilla Caporiacco was synomymised with Micaria and C. marchesii was further synonymised with M. pallipes . Although the taxonomic status of the genus Castanilla is beyond the focus of this paper and in any case the generic synonymy proposed by Haddad & Bosmans (2013) is not in question, the close re-examination of the C. marchesii lectotype and the comparison with our specimen, suggests that the synonymy of the two species is incorrect. More precisely, in M. pallipes the anterior margin of the epigyne forms a median, posteriorly pointed tip and the lateral margins are centrally placed as opposing S’s creating a distinctive rounded median cavity with narrow neck and widened base. The epigastic furrow rises in the middle of this cavity. In C. marchesii the anterior margin forms a continuous horizontal line, the lateral margins are like opposite parenthesis and the epigastic furrow does not rise towards the middle of the central cavity. Additionally the spermathecae of C. marchesii are well below the anterior margin when compared to M. pallipes, in which the spermathecae and the copulatory ducts are almost at the same level as the anterior margin. The lectotype of M. marchesii has lost its somatic setae and looks plain coloured, therefore this character cannot be compared to M. pallipes . There is also a clear size difference between the two species that further weakens their conspecificity. We therefore propose the re-establishement of Castanilla marchesii as a valid species with the new combination Micaria marchesii .

Distribution. Canary Islands to Central Asia.