Masteria hirsuta L. Koch, 1873

Dupérré, Nadine, Tapia, Elicio, Quandt, Dietmar, Crespo-Pérez, Verónica & Harms, Danilo, 2021, From the lowlands to the highlands of Ecuador, a study of the genus Masteria (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Dipluridae) with description of seven new species, Zootaxa 5005 (4), pp. 538-568 : 540

Masteria hirsuta L. Koch, 1873

Figs 1A–C , 20A .

Masteria hirsuta L. Koch, 1873: 458 , pl. 35, f. 5 (Description female from Ovalau).

Masteria hirsuta Simon, 1892a: 190 , f. 131.

Masteria hirsuta Roewer, 1963a: 109 , f. 2a–d (Description male from Ponape).

Masteria hirsuta Raven, 1979: 627 , f. 5–7. (Illustration of holotype female).

Masteria hirsuta Passanha & Brescovit, 2018: 13 , f. 3B, 6A, 7A–B (Illustration female from Ponape, images of male from Ponape per Roewer).

Type material. Ein Exemplar im Museum Godeffroy. Von Ovalau. ( Koch 1873: 458). Holotype female in Zoologisches Museum Hamburg ( ZMH-A0003083 ). Examined.

Diagnosis. Masteria hirsuta is distinguished from all species by the combination of the following characters: six eyes with strongly recurved posterior row ( Figs 1A , 20A ), internal genitalia with unilobed spermathecae, spermathecae bases wide and short, oval ectal lobe (EcL) situated externally on spermathecae bases ( Fig. 1C ).

Description. Female (holotype): Total length: 5.40; carapace length: 2.64; carapace width: 2.18; abdomen length: 2.76. Carapace yellow-orange ( Fig. 1A ). Chelicerae yellow; promargin with 12 teeth and ~15 smaller mesobasal teeth. Endites whitish without cuspules. Labium whitish without cuspules. Sternum whitish, covered with long setae ( Fig. 1B ). Eyes: six eyes grouped; AME absent; ALE and PLE almost equal; PME rounded: posterior row strongly recurved ( Fig. 20A ). Abdomen elongated, uniformly beige covered with long setae ( Fig. 1A ). Spinnerets: PLS 2.66 (0.91/0.88/0.87). Legs coloration uniformly pale yellow. Leg measurements: I, femur, 2.26; II, missing; III, femur 1.5; IV, femur 2.7, patella 1.07 and tibia 1.9. Leg spination: legs damaged. Palpal claw with ~ 21 teeth. Genitalia: Unilobed spermathecae with large, oval ectal lobes (EcL) situated externally on spermathecae bases; spermathecae bases wide and short; glandular region wide, with glands large and widely interspaced ( Fig. 1C ).

Note. The type species of the genus Masteria hirsuta was described by L. Koch in 1873, based on a female specimen from Ovalau ( Fiji Islands). Roewer (1963) described the male based on a specimen from Pohnpei (or Ponape) in Micronesia and examined several juvenile females from Marina Islands (Tinian) , Palau (Babelthuap, Koror, Peleliu), Chuuk (or Truk), Kosrae Is. (or Kusaie) next to adult females specimens from Yap and the Marshall Island (Eniwetok). Roewer concluded that all the specimens he examined represented a single widespread species in Micronesia, even though the type came from Ovalau, about 1000km away.

The internal genitalia of the female holotype (and type species of the genus) is illustrated here for the first time ( Fig. 1C ). The internal genitalia of the female holotype differ from the illustration given for a specimen identified as M. hirsuta by Passanha & Brescovit 2018 from Ponape (see Passanha & Brescovit 2018: fig. 6A). The differences observed are as such: the spermathecae bases are much shorter and broader in the type specimen and the ectal lobes are situated externally on the spermathecae bases while in M. hirsuta from Ponape the spermathecae bases are long and thin and the ectal lobes are situated medially on the spermathecae bases. The female internal genitalia of Masteria are fragile, the differences observed could be due to distortion, variation, or just a different angle of illustration. At this point, a re-examination of fresh specimens from Ovalau, and Ponape is necessary in order to conclude if these specimens belong to the same or represent separate species. Bearing in mind the high diversity of the genus (WSC 2021), it would not be surprising that the species from Ovalau and Ponape are two different species and under these circumstances the male described by Roewer (1963) would not be male of M. hirsuta . Interestingly, Raven (1979) redescribed the species based on the type specimen and illustrated the carapace but the information was overlooked in the World Spider Catalog (2021).

Figures

FIGURES 1A–C. Masteria hirsuta L. Koch, 1873 (holotype). A. Female habitus, dorsal view. B. Female habitus, ventral view. C. Internal genitalia, dorsal view. Scale bars: 0.5mm.

FIGURES 20A–H. Cephalothorax, dorsal view. A. Masteria hirsuta L. Koch, 1873 (female holotype). B. Masteria jatunsacha n. sp. (male holotype). C. Masteria machay n. sp. (female holotype). D. Masteria chalupas n. sp. (male holotype). E. Masteria papallacta n. sp. (male holotype). F. Masteria papallacta n. sp. (female allotype). G. Masteria pasochoa n. sp. (male holotype). H. Masteria pasochoa n. sp. (female allotype).