Pholcus chicheng, Tong & Li, 2010

Tong, Yanfeng & Li, Shuqiang, 2010, Eight new spider species of the genus Pholcus (Araneae, Pholcidae) from China, Zootaxa 2355, pp. 35-55 : 36-38

Pholcus chicheng sp. nov.

Figs 1D–F, 4A–F

Type material: Holotype male, CHINA: Hebei Province, Zhangjiakou City, Chicheng County, Dahaituo National Natural Reserve (40°34.933´N, 115°46.066´E), 5 November 2005, Q. Wang, Y. Song & G. Zheng leg. Paratypes: 18 males and 10 females, same data as for holotype .

Etymology: The species name is a noun in apposition derived from the type locality.

Diagnosis: The new species is similar to P. pennatus Zhang, Zhu & Song, 2005 , but can be distinguished by the shapes of bulbal appendix and procursus, and the chitinized triangular plate of the epigynum.

Description: Male (holotype). Total length 5.28 (5.84 with clypeus), carapace width 1.76. Leg 1: 48.28 (12.42+0.71+12.71+19.85+2.59), tibia 2: 8.28, tibia 3: 5.57, tibia 4: 7.71; tibia 1 L/d: 68. Habitus as in figs 1D, E. Carapace yellowish, with brown radiated stripes and brown marginal band; ocular area yellowish, with brown band at median and laterally; clypeus yellowish, without marks; sternum deep yellow. Opisthosoma gray, with some spots dorsally and laterally. Distance PME–PME 0.27; diameter PME 0.15; distance PME– ALE 0.06; diameter AME 0.09. Chelicerae as in figs 4C, D, with pair of black apophyses distally, pair of unsclerotized apophyses proximolaterally, and pair of finger-shaped prominences frontally. Palps as in figs 4A, B; bulbal appendix spoon-shaped distally. Legs yellow, but dark brown on basal part of tibiae and patellae, with darker rings on femora (subdistally) and tibiae (proximally and subdistally), without spines, curved and vertical hairs; tarsus 1 with about 20 pseudosegments, but only about 10 distinct distally.

Variation: Tibia 1 in other males (n = 18): 8.99–13.14 (mean: 11.16).

Females: In general similar to males. Tibia 1 (n = 10): 7.43–8.85 (mean: 8.19). Epigynum as in figs 1F and 4E, brown with distinctive pattern. Dorsal view as in fig. 4F.

Distribution: Only known from type locality at present.