Anelosimus tita Agnarsson, Kuntner & Jencik

Agnarsson, Ingi, Jencik, Brian B., Veve, Giselle M., Hanitriniaina, Sahondra, Agostini, Diego, Goh, Seok Ping, Pruitt, Jonathan & Kuntner, Matjaz, 2015, Systematics of the Madagascar Anelosimus spiders: remarkable local richness and endemism, and dual colonization from the Americas, ZooKeys 509, pp. 13-52 : 31-32

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Theridiidae

Anelosimus tita Agnarsson, Kuntner & Jencik sp. n. Fig. 10

Type material.

Holotype female from Ambohitantely Special Reserve (18.161°S, 47.302°E), 1500 m alt, Analamanga region, Ankazobe district, Madagascar, 28.iv.2008, montane forest, col. Agnarsson and Kuntner, in NMNH.

Other material.

Only known from holotype.

Etymology.

The species is a noun in apposition named in the honor of the first author’s mother-in-law Yadira Collado Ulloa, affectionately known to her grandchildren as ‘Tita’.

Diagnosis.

Anelosimus tita can be diagnosed from other Madagascan Anelosimus by the triangular shape of the septum (Fig. 10E) and on the basis of the following unique mtDNA nucleotide substitutions at the following standard DNA barcode alignment positions: T (30), G (37), T (80), T (81), T(82), A(83), G (109), G (214), T(220), G (319), T (328), T (586), T (625), G (873), G (883), A (903), G (919). It can also be readily diagnosed from most other Anelosimus based the following partially shared nucleotide substitutions, and all other species by their unique combination: T (22, except Anelosimus hookeri and Anelosimus huxleyi ), T (121, except Anelosimus nazariani ), G (190, except some Anelosimus huxleyi ), G (262, except Anelosimus nazariani ), T (532, except some Anelosimus huxleyi ), T (553, except Anelosimus andasibe ).

Description.

Female: Total length 3.87 Cephalothorax 1.9 long, 1.34 wide, 1.09 high, brown. Sternum 1.02 long, 0.87 wide, extending half way between coxae IV, orange. Abdomen 2.44 long, 1.68 wide, 1.33 high. Mixed pattern of white, grey, and black. Eyes subequal in size about 0.11 in diameter. Clypeus height about 2 times one AME diameter. Chelicerae with one large tooth, three denticles prolaterally. Leg I femur 2.01, patella 0.66, tibia 2.02, metatarsus 1.84, tarsus 0.91. Leg formula 3421, with leg 1 significantly longer than leg 2. Legs alternating between light orange and dark brown bands. 3-4 small trichobothria dorsally on tibia, 3 on tibia 1. 3 or 4 dorsal trichobothria on female palpal tibia.

Variation: only known from holotype.

Distribution.

Only known from type locality.

Natural history.

Unknown, predicted to be subsocial.