Nerudia atacama, HUBER, 2000

HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2000, New World Pholcid Spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae): A Revision At Generic Level, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2000 (254), pp. 1-348 : 87

Nerudia atacama , new species Figures 333 337

TYPES: Male holotype, 3♀ paratypes, and one juvenile, from Huasco : Cuesta Pajonales, S Domeyko, Dept. Atacama, Chile ; 1200 m elev., Oct. 5, 1992 (N. I. Platnick, P. Goloboff, K. Catley), in AMNH .

ETYMOLOGY: Named for the Chilean state Atacama. The specific name is a noun in apposition.

DIAGNOSIS: Tiny, short-legged pholcid with eight eyes, without thoracic groove, with globular opisthosoma; easily distinguished from other short-legged pholcids by the dorsally bent procursus and the two long bulbal projections (fig. 335); from Ninetis by the presence of stridulatory files on the chelicerae, from Gertschiola by the presence of cheliceral apophyses (compare figs. 333, 351), from Kambiwa by many details of the palps (compare figs. 335, 339).

MALE (holotype): Total length 1.39, cara- pace width 0.63; leg 1: 4.31 (1.16+0.19 +1.19+1.29+0.48), tibia 2: 1.03, tibia 3: 0.90, leg 4 missing; tibia 1 l/d: 16. Habitus as in Guaranita goloboffi , n. sp. (cf. fig. 367); entire prosoma light orange-ochre; carapace without thoracic groove; distance PME-ALE about 30% of PME diameter. Sternum with pair of small frontal humps; chelicerae with pair of frontal apophyses and stridulatory ridges laterally (fig. 333; the stridulatory pick is a modified hair proximally on palpal femur: fig. 334, shafted arrow). Palps as in figs. 334 335, coxa without retrolateral apophysis, femur almost cylindrical, widened distally, tibia globular, procursus simple, bent dorsally (fig. 335), bulb with two projections, one probably the embolus (arrow in fig. 335), the other a pointed apophysis. Legs orange-ochre, without rings; almost all hairs missing; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 67%; tarsus 1 with ~ 6 pseudosegments. Opisthosoma greenishgray, dorsally covered with dark spots, ventrally pale.

FEMALE: Tibia 1 (N = 4) 1.23, 1.23, 1.23, 1.35. In general very similar to male, but sternum without anterior humps. Epigynum brown, as in fig. 336; dorsal view as in fig. 337.

VARIATION: The epigynum of one of the female paratypes (the female with the longest tibia 1) had a slightly different shape.

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from type locality.

MATERIAL EXAMINED: CHILE: Atacama: Huasco: Cuesta Pajonales : types above ; same collection data, but at 1080 m elev., 1♀ in AMNH .

Figures

Figs. 333 337. Nerudia atacama, n. gen., n. sp. 333. Male chelicerae, frontal view. 334. Left male palp, prolateral view (shafted arrow points to stridulatory pick, other arrows in 334 335 point to putative embolus). 335. Left male palp, retrolateral view. 336. Epigynum, ventral view. 337. Epigynum, dorsal view. Scale lines: 0.2 mm.