Blakistonia, Hogg. Where, 1902

Harrison, Sophie E., Rix, Michael G., Harvey, Mark S. & Austin, Andrew D., 2018, Systematics of the Australian spiny trapdoor spiders of the genus Blakistonia Hogg (Araneae: Idiopidae), Zootaxa 4518 (1), pp. 1-76 : 68

Blakistonia ‘sp. 1’

Material examined. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: One juvenile, Yamarna, 140 km E. of Laverton , 28°07’58”S, 123°41’22”E, 3 December 2011, hand collected, Acacia shrubland, V. Saffer (WAM T 121587 DNA).

Diagnosis. As Blakistonia ‘sp. 1’ is known only from a juvenile specimen, it cannot be distinguished from other species by morphology. However, all life stages of this species can be distinguished from those of other species with sequence data by the following nucleotide substitutions (n = 1 specimen): C(108), C(144), T(271), T(299), C(346), T(478); and by the following unique motifs: GAT(47–49), TC(57–58), TA(99–100), GC(210– 211), CA(354–355), AGC(373–375), GTTA(414–418), GA(456–457), TTT(470–472), GT(477–478), AT(513– 514).

Distribution. This species is known only from Yamarna, 140 km east of Laverton, in the Goldfields region of Western Australia ( Fig. 33 ).

Remarks. As the only known specimen of Blakistonia ‘sp. 1’ is a juvenile, it is not formally described as a new species, although the molecular data clearly demonstrate it as new.

Figures

FIGURE 33. Distribution of Blakistonia species: B. mainae sp. n. (white circle), B. wingellina sp. n. (white triangle), B. olea sp. n. (white square), B. nullarborensis sp. n. (black squares), Blakistonia ‘sp. 1’ (black circle), and B. tariae sp. n. (black triangles).