Cryptoerithus Rainbow

Platnick, N. I. & Baehr, B., 2006, A Revision Of The Australasian Ground Spiders Of The Family Prodidomidae (Araneae: Gnaphosoidea), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2006 (298), pp. 1-287 : 232

Cryptoerithus Rainbow

Cryptoerithus Rainbow, 1915: 777 (type species by monotypy Cryptoerithus occultus Rainbow ).

DIAGNOSIS: Specimens of this genus can readily be separated from those of all other molycriines by the relatively short anterior lateral spinnerets, which are only moderately advanced from the posterior pairs (fig. 16), and by the peculiar paramedian rows of stiff, erect setae found on the abdominal venter, between the epigastric scutum and the spinnerets (fig. 16).

DESCRIPTION: Small to medium sized spiders, total length of males 2.0–4.0, of females 2.4–4.7. Carapace flattened, broadly oval, cephalic area not abruptly constricted but narrowed in front to less than half its maximum width, with or without cover of plumose setae or spines; fovea longitudinal, weak. Eight eyes in two strongly procurved rows (fig. 9); PME largest, flat, situated posteriorly of other eyes, rectangular or egg-shaped, medially contiguous, silvery; AME second largest, circular, dark; ALE and PLE slightly oval, light; median ocular quadrangle slightly wider in back than in front, slightly longer than wide. Clypeus low, about 0.2–1.0 times ALE diameter, curved downward. Sternum ovoid, flat, with pre- coxal, intercoxal sclerites; surface smooth with few long setae; margin bordered with clusters of long, bent setae between coxae; posterior margin wide, separating coxae IV. Pedicel composed of two weak dorsal sclerites, one small ventral sclerite. Chelicerae with setae bordering distal, mesial margins, promargin, retromargin with 1–5 tiny teeth or bare. Endites slightly convergent, obliquely depressed, rectangular, with promarginal scopula; serrula present. Labium usually inverted u-shaped. Abdomen with or without weakly sclerotized orange scutum in males; cuticle with weak or dense cover of gray plumose setae, frontally normally with band of long, bent setae; venter of stiff, erect setae; anterior lateral spinnerets 0.25–0.5 of abdominal length, contiguous or separated by up to their diameter at base (fig. 16), tip with extremely long piriform gland spigots, triangular ventral tubercle containing few gland spigots; posterior medians small, narrow contiguous; posterior laterals slightly longer, with two segments. Legs laterigrade, leg formula 4123, with sparse setae, few weak spines, coxae IV 1.4–1.7 times longer than III; trochanters not notched; femora I, II dorsally strongly incrassate; tibiae, metatarsi, tarsi I, II with or without scopula, or with band of scales or short, bent setae proventrally; tarsi without cuticular cracks, with onychium bearing two relatively long claws with few peg-shaped teeth; claw tufts divided, dense (fig. 22); trichobothria present on dorsal surface of patellae, tibiae, metatarsi, tarsi. Female palp without claw or strong ventral setae. Male palpal cymbium about 1.75–1.85 times longer than wide, with dorsoapical scopula, retrolaterally convex or straight, with basal hook; conductor short, straight, semicircular, or s-shaped; median apophysis cane- or scoop-shaped; terminal apophysis finger-shaped, triangular, bipartite, or absent; embolus normally thin, semicircular, but sometimes cane- or finger-shaped; retrolateral tibial apophysis present. Epigynal atrium usually present, anterior margin with or without epigynal hood, posterior margin with or without lateral plates; spermathecae convoluted, horizontally aligned.