Epectris Simon, 1893

Platnick, Norman I. & Dupérré, Nadine, 2009, The Goblin Spider Genera Opopaea and Epectris (Araneae, Oonopidae) in the New World, American Museum Novitates 3649, pp. 1-44 : 29

Epectris Simon

Epectris Simon, 1893b: 74 (type species by monotypy Epectris apicalis Simon ).

Nale Saaristo and Marusik, 2008: 39 (type species by original designation Opopaea lena Suman ). NEW SYNONYMY.

DIAGNOSIS: Because the type species of this genus has been known only from females, and no illustrations were provided by Simon (1893b), the identity and relationships of the taxon have remained obscure. Simon did recognize the affinity of Epectris apicalis with Opopaea , and might well have placed the species in Opopaea instead had he known that the male palpal patella shares the synapomorphies of that genus. However, Simon (1893a) separated Epectris from Opopaea on the basis of its more procurved posterior eye row (figs. 111, 113, 115, 117). Males can easily be separated from those of Opopaea by the presence of a long basal protrusion on the palpal bulb (fig. 151), and both sexes have a posterior dark spot on the abdominal dorsum (figs. 105, 108) that is lacking in Opopaea , but these differences, like those in the eye pattern, may be just highly autapomorphic characters of the type species (see below, under Synonymy).

DESCRIPTION: A description has been provided by Saaristo and Marusik (2008: 39, as Nale ).

MISPLACED SPECIES: Two modern species have been placed in the genus: Epectris aenobarbus Brignoli (1978) from Bhutan and Epectris conujaingensis Xu (1986) from China, but it is clear from the palpal illustrations provided by those authors that both of those species are misplaced, and are not congeneric with the type species of either Epectris or Opopaea . The only other species currently assigned to the genus is Epectris mollis Simon (1907) , based on a female from Sri Lanka; Simon provided no illustrations, but his indication that the abdomen lacks scuta shows that this species is also misplaced, possibly even at the subfamily level. The affinities of all three taxa will remain uncertain until their types can be examined in the course of revisionary studies on Old World oonopids.

SYNONYMY: Saaristo and Marusik (2008) removed O. lena from Opopaea and placed it in the monotypic new genus Nale , arguing that the remaining species of Opopaea are united by a palpal fenestra that is lacking in O. lena . Because O. lena is a junior synonym of the type species of Epectris , Nale is here placed as a junior synonym of Epectris . We suspect that E. apicalis is just a highly autapomorphic species of Opopaea , rather than its sister group, and that Epectris and Nale may both therefore be junior synonyms of Opopaea . A decision on that question should wait until the Old World fauna is fully revised and the relationships of E. apicalis and the many species of Opopaea can be analyzed in detail, using both morphological and molecular data. It seems likely, though, that E. apicalis does actually have a palpal fenestra (see figs. 155, 156).