Pholcus datan, 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 : 38-39

Pholcus datan sp. nov.

Figs 1G–I, 6A–F

Type material: Holotype male, CHINA: Hebei Province, Chengde City , Fengning County, Datan Town, Fuozhu Cave (41°22.193´N, 116°29.413´E, alt. 869 m), 4 April 2005, S. Li, K. Meng, Y. Zheng & Q. Wang leg. Paratypes: 28 males and 31 females, same data as for holotype .

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

Diagnosis: The new species is similar to P. wuling sp. nov., but can be distinguished by the shapes of procursus and uncus, the absence of bulbal appendix, the chitinized triangular plate of the epigynum and the internal structure of female genitalia.

Description: Male (holotype). Total length 5.24 (5.76 with clypeus), carapace width 2.03. Leg 1: 49.56 (12.14+0.85+12.57+20.43+3.57), tibia 2: 8.57, tibia 3: 5.85, tibia 4: 8.13; tibia 1 L/d: 57. Habitus as in figs 1G, H. Carapace yellowish, with brown radiated stripes from median and brown bands marginally; ocular area yellowish, with brown bands at median and laterally; clypeus yellowish, with indistinct brownish marks; sternum brown. Opisthosoma pale gray, with some spots dorsally and laterally. Distance PME–PME 0.26; diameter PME 0.16; distance PME–ALE 0.05; diameter AME 0.12. Chelicerae as in fig. 6C, with pair of black apophyses distally, pair of unsclerotized rounded apophyses proximolaterally, and pair of slender pointed prominences frontally. Palps as in figs 6A, B; uncus submedially with a narrow process (arrow in fig. 6A); the process with a small cone-shaped apophysis subdistally, visible from lateral view (fig. 6D); without appendix. Legs yellow, but dark brown on patella and basal part of tibiae and whitish on tips of femora and tibiae, with darker rings on femora (subdistally) and tibiae (subdistally), without spines, curved and vertical hairs; tarsus 1 with about 15 pseudosegments, but only about 10 distinct distally.

Variation: Tibia 1 in other males (n = 28): 11.99–13.56 (mean: 12.49).

Females: In general similar to males. Tibia 1 in females (n = 31): 8.99–10.71 (mean: 9.85). Epigynum as in figs 1I and 6E, brown with distinctive pattern; with a small, short cylindrical outgrowth. Dorsal view as in fig. 6F.

Distribution: Only known from type locality.