Pholcus suizhongicus Zhu & Song, 1999

Zhang, Feng & Zhu, Ming-Sheng, 2009, A review of the genus Pholcus (Araneae: Pholcidae) from China, Zootaxa 2037 (1), pp. 1-114 : 89-90

Pholcus suizhongicus Zhu & Song, 1999

( Fig. 51 )

Pholcus suizhongicus Zhu & Song, 1999 , in Song, Zhu & Chen 1999: 59, f. 25A–H.

Diagnosis. This species resembles P. qingchengensis in the shape of the palpal bulb, but can be distinguished from it by the shape of the procursus tip ( Figs. 51G–H ), by the cephalic region with two slender brown lines ( Fig. 51A ), and by the unbranched appendix ( Fig. 51G ).

Redescription. Male (holotype), total length 5.0: cephalothorax 1.4 long, 1.8 wide; abdomen 3.6 long, 1.6 wide. Leg I: 49.7 (14.4+1.1+12.5+19.6+2.1), tibia II: 8.0, tibia III: missing, tibia IV: 7.4; tibia I L/D: 69. Carapace short, broad and almost circular, ochre, with brown marks broadly connecting to ocular area. Cephalic region raised, with two slender brown longitudinal stripes centrally, ocular area dark yellow. Clypeus 0.52, slightly ochre, with yellow mark centrally. Distance AME–AME 0.05. Chelicerae as in Fig. 51F , with pair of black serrated apophyses distally, pair of unsclerotized thumb-shaped apophyses proximolaterally and pair of unsclerotized triangular apophyses proximocentrally. Labium and endites yellowish brown. Sternum yellow, with irregular light brown spots. Femora, patellae and tibiae dark ochre, with dark rings, metatarsi and tarsi brown. Abdomen cylindrical, fawn, dorsum with numerous blackish brown spots. Venter pale brown, without markings. Palps as in Figs. 51G and 51H , bulb with almost rectangular uncus, appendix thin and long, trochanter with a short ventral apophysis.

Female (paratype): in general very similar to male. Total length 4.8, cephalothorax 1.2 long, 1.7 wide; abdomen 3.6 long, 2.1 wide. Tibia I: 8.7. Prosoma shape as in Fig. 51A . Distance AME–AME 0.06. Abdomen cylindrical, fawn, dorsum with numerous blackish spots as in Fig. 51B . Epigynum roughly rectangular as in Fig. 51C , with a knob-shaped apophysis on the top. Dorsal view as in Fig. 51D , with a rainbow-shaped sclerotized arch anteriorly and a pair of nearly touching oval pore plates posteriorly.

Distribution. Known from type locality only.

Material examined. CHINA: Liaoning: Suizhong County, August 4, 1987, leg. S. S. Gao, male holotype, 1♀ paratype ( MHBU) .

Figures

FIGURE 51. Pholcus suizhongicus Zhu & Song, 1999 (illustrations modified from Song et al. 1999). A. female prosoma, dorsal view. B. female opisthosoma, lateral view. C. epigynum, ventral view. D. same, dorsal view. E. trochanter of male left palp, retrolaterodorsal view. F. male left chelicera, frontal view. G. left palp, prolateral view. H. same, retrolateral view. Scale lines: 1.0mm (A, B), 0.5mm (C, D, F–H), 0.2mm (E).