Leviea, Maddison, Wayne P. & Szűts, Tamas, 2019

Maddison, Wayne P. & Szűts, Tamas, 2019, Myrmarachnine jumping spiders of the new subtribe Levieina from Papua New Guinea (Araneae, Salticidae, Myrmarachnini), ZooKeys 842, pp. 85-112 : 85

Leviea gen. n.

Type species.

Leviea herberti sp. n.

Etymology.

This distinctive genus is named in honour of Herbert Walter Levi, his partner Lorna Rose Levi, and their daughter Frances Levi. Dr. Levi (or, Herb, as he humbly preferred to be known by) was one of the grand arachnologists of the twentieth century, describing over 1200 species of spiders, mentoring many subsequent leaders of the field, and curating one of arachnology’s most important museum collections ( Leibensperger 2016). Lorna collaborated in his work in many ways, co-authoring the classic book Spiders and their kin ( Levi and Levi 1968), which introduced the first author of this paper to spider diversity. Frances accompanied them in the field and carried on an interest in woven creations. Their contributions, both personal and scientific, will long be remembered ( Maddison 2014a, b; Leibensperger 2016). The Levis pronounced the vowels of their name approximately as their IPA equivalents (e as in Ed, i as in eat). The last three letters of Leviea are to be pronounced as three separate vowels (as their IPA equivalents, i-e-a). The name is to be treated grammatically as feminine.

Diagnosis.

The form of the body is not in the least bit reminiscent of an ant, beetle or wasp, unlike other myrmarachnines. Instead, the body is of standard salticid form (e.g., Icius Simon, 1876, Salticus Latreille, 1804), somewhat glabrous, with chevron markings. Two features possibly retained from antlike ancestors are a female palp that is widened and somewhat dorso-ventrally flattened, and the many long macrosetae on the first tibia in two of the Leviea species. The male embolus is distinctive for ending broadly, not tapering to a point. As in Papuamyr , there is an ectal spur on the paturon (white arrow in Figs 13, 29).