Anemesia Pocock, 1895

Zonstein, Sergei, 2018, A revision of the spider genus Anemesia (Araneae, Cyrtaucheniidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 485, pp. 1-100 : 6-8

Anemesia Pocock, 1895

Anemesia Pocock 1895: 194 .

Anemesia – Simon 1903: 90. — Roewer 1942: 177. — Bonnet 1955: 322. — Zonstein 2001: 11; 2004: 358, fig. 22. — Marusik et al. 2014: 2 .

Type species

Nemesia tubifex Pocock, 1889 , by monotypy.

Emended diagnosis

The genus differs from other known cyrtaucheniids in the following unique combination of characters: (a) a relatively broad carapace which is weakly if at all constricted posteriorly; (b) a fairly short and straight thoracic fovea; (c) a protruding triangular clypeus; (d) a long and narrow posterior pair of the sternal sigilla; (e) among types of the spigots only AC can be identified, while MAC are absent. Although these features can occur individually in other genera of the Cyrtaucheniidae , such a combination has no analogs within the family.

Redescription

HABITUS. Anemesia includes mostly small or medium-sized mygalomorph spiders (body length 8–30 mm).

PROSOMA. Carapace broadly oval, mostly hirsute in males, glabrous to slightly hirsute in females. Clypeus triangular. Thoracic fovea transverse, straight or weakly procurved. Eye tubercle, normally carrying eight eyes (posterior eyes sometimes reduced), low to very low in females, more developed in conspecific males, mound carrying AMEs always distinct. Chelicerae with rastellum composed of numerous spikes on dorsodistal cheliceral edge. Cheliceral furrow with large promarginal teeth and with smaller retromarginal teeth, minute to medium-sized in females, but reduced in size in conspecific males. Fang without serration. Male intercheliceral tumescence absent. Labium moderately long, trapezoidal to subquadrate, without cuspules. Sternum domed, narrowed anteriorly. Sternal sigilla mostly distant from sternal margin, elongate, sometimes poorly developed (in A. infumata sp. nov. and A. pallida sp. nov.). Posterior sternal sigilla generally long and narrowly oval. Maxillae broadly trapezoidal. Few to numerous maxillary cuspules confined to probasal edge of maxillae. Sexual dimorphism in size of cuspules absent. Serrula not evident.

STRUCTURES OF LEGS I–IV. Leg formula: 4123 or 1423. Femur I usually longer than femur IV. Legs equal in width or legs III and IV slightly stouter (in females of A. andreevae sp. nov.). Male tibia I with one retroventral megaspine. Metatarsal preening combs absent. Tarsi entire. Most species of Anemesia have spines on tarsi III–IV (females of A. pococki sp. nov. and A. tubifex possess spines only on tarsus III; in females of A. andreevae sp. nov. all tarsi are aspinose; in males of A. castanea sp. nov. and A. parvula sp. nov. in addition to spinose tarsi III–IV, spines are located also on tarsus II). Scopula thin, moderately long and dense; entire and distal on metatarsi I and II; entire or narrowly divided on tarsi I and II, and on female palpal tarsus; widely divided, mixed with setae or reduced to absent on tarsi III and IV in males; usually absent on tarsi III and IV in females. Trichobothria arranged in two converging rows on tibiae, one straight row on metatarsi and one relatively narrow zigzag row on tarsi. Trichobothrial bases with longitudinal ridges. Tarsal organ low, lingulate, with weak concentric ridges. Female palp with tarsal claw possessing few teeth located prolaterally. Paired claws on tarsi I and II biserially dentate with numerous teeth, on tarsi III and IV usually with fewer teeth, in females inner teeth row may be reduced completely. Unpaired tarsal claw small, curved.

MALE PALP. Tibia moderately long to very long, slightly to distinctly swollen or cylindrical, with no, few, or numerous spines. Cymbium asymmetrical with retrolateral lobe extended, with or without spines. Male palpal bulb pyriform or asymmetrically shaped. Embolus tapering and curved, in A. incana and related species with small subapical process.

SPERMATHECAE. Spermathecae may be multilobate, divided, or entire.

SPINNERETS. Two pairs of spinnerets. PMS medium-sized to small with functional spigots confined to apex only. Apical segment of PLS mostly triangular in females but usually longer (may be shortly digitiform) in conspecific males. Spigots: MAC not evident, only AC type present.

Species grouping

To assist with identifications, the species treated here are assigned to six species groups. These assignments are preliminary, because females in some species are unknown and they are not based on a phylogenetic grouping, though these groups may indeed reflect phylogenetic relationships.

Species included

Anemesia currently includes 14 species (listed below according to their assignment to the corresponding species groups): A. birulai ( Spassky, 1937) , A. koponeni Marusik, Zamani & Mirshamsi, 2014 , A. pococki sp. nov., A. tubifex ( Pocock, 1889) , A. andreevae sp. nov., A. oxiana sp. nov., A. sogdiana sp. nov., A. castanea sp. nov., A. karatauvi ( Andreeva, 1968) , A. pallida sp. nov., A. parvula sp. nov., A. incana Zonstein, 2001 , A. infumata sp. nov. and A. infuscata sp. nov.

Distribution

Central Asia: Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.