Physocyclus Simon, 1893

Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro, 2014, A reanalysis of the morphological phylogeny of the spider genus Physocyclus Simon (Araneae: Pholcidae) with the description of a new species and description of the female of Physocyclus paredesi Valdez-Mondragón from Mexico, Zootaxa 3866 (2), pp. 202-220 : 204-205

Genus Physocyclus Simon, 1893 .

Physocyclus globosus (Taczanowski, 1874) .― Type species.

Diagnosis and description. See Valdez-Mondragón (2010, 2013).

Species groups. dugesi and globosus groups ( Valdez-Mondragón, 2013).

globosus group, synapomorphies: 1) posterior dorsal protuberance on carapace of the female (left arrow, Fig. 28 ) (char. 3); 2) sclerotized patch on dorsal anterior part on the female opisthosoma (right arrow, Fig. 28 ) (char. 4); 3) epigynum with short, wide, and oval-shaped pore plates ( Fig. 33 ) (char. 10); 4) apical spine on embolus (left arrow, Fig. 26 ) (char. 30), and 5) embolic sclerites positioned dorsally on the embolus ( Fig. 25 ) (char. 37).

dugesi group, synapomorphies: 1) the lateral constraints in middle part of the epigynum, with very marked and bell-shaped ( Fig. 15 ) (char. 9); 2) the shape of the lateral apophysis of male chelicerae, in this case wide and projected toward front (char. 18) (with two posterior transformations in deeper branches of the group, see discussion); 3) embolus long with “J”-shaped (char. 39) (with three derived states or posterior transformations, see discussion); 4) the embolic sclerites on retrolateral part of the bulb ( Figs 8, 9 ) (char. 43); 5) the notch between embolic sclerites and embolus ( Fig. 8 ) (char. 45). Homoplastic characters: 1) cones sclerotized in frontal part of male chelicerae ( Fig. 6 ) (char. 22); 2) the strongly and visible sclerotized retrolateral region on palp bulb (except P. platnicki, Valdez-Mondragón 2010 , fig. 199) ( Fig. 8 ) (char. 54). Note: All the dugesi group species, except P. platnicki , present more than 30 sclerotized cones frontally on the male chelicerae ( Fig. 6 , char. 23; Valdez- Mondragón, 2010: fig. 197), an easily recognizable morphological character.

Monophyly. As was found by Valdez-Mondragón (2013), the phylogenetic reanalysis supported the genus Physocyclus as monophyletic, the following synapomorphies support the genus: 1) the paired and ventral apophysis on anterior part of epigynum ( Figs 15 , 31 ), 2) the lateral constraints in middle part of epigynum ( Fig. 15 ), 3) the internal sclerotized arc with a sclerotized projection on anterior part of epigynum ( Figs. 17 , 33 ), and 4) curved setae in tibiae and metatarsi (see discussion for this character).

Composition. Including Physocyclus palmarus and Physocyclus peribanensis sp. nov., the genus Physocyclus is composed of 32 species in two species groups ( globosus and dugesi ). The globosus group, composed by 11 species: P. b i c o r n i s Gertsch, P. gertschi Valdez-Mondragón , P. globosus (Taczanowski) , P. guanacaste Huber , P. huacana Valdez-Mondragón , P. lautus Gertsch , P. modestus Gertsch , P. montanoi Valdez-Mondragón , P. paredesi Valdez-Mondragón , P. sarae Valdez-Mondragón , and P. validus Gertsch. The dugesi group, composed by 21 species: P. brevicornus Valdez-Mondragón , P. californicus Chamberlin & Gertsch , P. cornutus Banks , P. darwini Valdez-Mondragón , P. dugesi Simon , P. enaulus Crosby , P. franckei Valdez-Mondragón , P. hoogstraali Gertsch & Davis , P. marialuisae Valdez-Mondragón , P. merus Gertsch , P. mexicanus Banks , P. michoacanus Val dez - Mondragón, P. mysticus Chamberlin , P. palmarus Jiménez & Palacios-Cardel , P. pedregosus Gertsch , P. peribanensis sp. nov., P. platnicki Valdez-Mondragón , P. reddell i Gertsch, P. rothi Valdez-Mondragón , P. sprousei Valdez-Mondragón , and P. tanneri Chamberlin. As was proposed by Valdez-Mondragón (2013), Physocyclus mexicanus was included tentatively in dugesi group because the female holotype has a long ventral apophysis on the epigynum as do the other species of the group.

Natural history. See Valdez-Mondragón (2010, 2013).

Distribution. Valdez-Mondragón (2013): “ Physocyclus has a natural distribution in North America, with most of the species known found in Mexico ( Valdez-Mondragón, 2013; figs. 22, 23), with P. californicus , P. enaulus , P. hoogstraali , and P. tanneri distributed in the southern part of the United States, and P. guanacaste distributed in Costa Rica. P. dugesi has been introduced into Costa Rica and Venezuela, although this last record of Caporiacco (1955) could be erroneous (B. Huber pers. comm.). Physocyclus globosus has been introduced and reported in different countries around the world ( Valdez-Mondragón, 2010)”.

Recently Dr. Stuart J. Longhorn from England sent me one male specimen of Physocyclus guanacaste from San Isidro, Honduras deposited in the in the Colección Nacional de Arácnidos (CNAN 8560), which is a new distribution record for the species, described originally from Province of Guanacaste , Costa Rica (see Valdez- Mondragón, 2010 for complete records of this species).

Figures

FIGURES 28 – 33. Physocyclus paredesi Valdez-Mondragón, 2010. Female. 28 – 30, Habitus, dorsal, lateral, and ventral views respectively (left arrow on Fig. 28 indicates the posterior dorsal protuberance on carapace, right arrow indicates the sclerotized patch on opisthosoma). 31, Epigynum, ventral view. 32, Epigynum, left lateral view. 33, Epigynum, dorsal view. Scales: 0.5 mm. Abbreviations: PP, pore plates; VAE, ventral apophyses of epigynum.

FIGURES 18 – 27. Physocyclus paredesi Valdez-Mondragón, 2010. Male (holotype). 18 – 20, Habitus, dorsal, lateral, and ventral views respectively. 21, Carapace and chelicerae, frontal view. 22, Carapace dorsal view. 23 – 24, Chelicerae, frontal and lateral views respectively (arrow indicates the subdistal apophysis on each chelicera). 25 – 27, Left palp, retrolateral, dorsal, and prolateral views respectively (arrow on Fig. 25 indicates the distal apophysis on femur, which has a long seta; left arrow on Fig. 26 indicates the apical conspicuous spine on embolus, right arrow indicates the apical bifurcation on embolus). Scales: 0.3 mm (Fig. 24), 0.5 mm (Figs 18 – 23, 25 – 27). Abbreviations: BU, bulb of the palp; ES, embolic sclerites; LAC, lateral apophyses of chelicerae; SF, stridulatory files of chelicerae; SO, spermatic operculum.

FIGURES 12 – 17. Physocyclus peribanensis sp. nov. Female (paratype). 12 – 14, Habitus, dorsal, lateral, and ventral views respectively. 15, Epigynum, ventral view. 16, Epigynum, left lateral view. 17, Epigynum, dorsal view. Scales: 0.5 mm (Figs 15 – 17), 1 mm (Figs 12 – 14). Abbreviations: PP, pore plates; VAE, ventral apophyses of epigynum.

FIGURES 1 – 11. Physocyclus peribanensis sp. nov. Male (holotype). 1 – 3, Habitus, dorsal, lateral, and ventral views respectively. 4, Carapace and chelicerae, frontal view. 5, Carapace dorsal view. 6 – 7, Chelicerae, frontal and lateral views respectively. 8, 9, 11, Left palp, retrolateral, dorsal, and prolateral views respectively (left arrow on Fig. 8 indicates the dorsal apophysis on the procursus, right arrow indicates the ventral notch basally on the procursus; arrow on Fig. 9 indicates the three distal projections on procursus; arrow on Fig. 11 indicates the setae sockets which look like pores). 10, Detail of the three distal projections on procursus (arrow indicates the brush of pseudotrichia). Scales: 0.5 mm (Figs 6, 7), 1 mm (Figs 1 – 5, 8, 9, 11). Abbreviations: BU, bulb of the palp; ES, embolic sclerites; LAC, lateral apophyses of chelicerae; SF, stridulatory files of chelicerae; SO, spermatic operculum.