Anelosimus huxleyi Agnarsson, Veve & Kuntner

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 : 36-38

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Theridiidae

Anelosimus huxleyi Agnarsson, Veve & Kuntner sp. n. Fig. 14

Type material.

Holotype female from Périnet Special Reserve (P.N. Andasibe Mantadia), Toamasina Province, Madagascar, (18.935°S, 48.418°E), 12-28.xi.2008, montane forest, 900-1000 m, col Hanitriniaina, in NMNH.

Other material.

Additional specimens from same locality, 3-20.iv.2008 and 12-28.xi.2008, col. Agnarsson, Kuntner, and Hanitriniaina.

Etymology.

The species epithet is a noun in the genitive case and honors the evolutionary biologist Thomas Henry Huxley; ‘Darwin´s bulldog’.

Diagnosis.

Anelosimus huxleyi females can be diagnosed from all other species except Anelosimus vondrona , by the relatively broad septum that extends the entire width of the epigynum (Fig. 14 D–E) and from Anelosimus vondrona by the more heavily sclerotized lower margin of the epigynal plate (Fig. 14 D–F). Anelosimus huxleyi can be diagnosed from other Madagascan Anelosimus on the basis of the following unique mtDNA nucleotide substitutions at the following standard DNA barcode alignment positions: A (283), A (418), T (760), G (784). 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 tita and Anelosimus hookeri ), T (58, except Anelosimus may ), A (133, except Anelosimus darwini ), G (181), T (139, except Anelosimus sallee ), G (619, except Anelosimus vondrona ), G (625, except Anelosimus torfi and Anelosimus ata ), T (781, except Anelosimus may and Anelosimus salut ), G (817, except Anelosimus torfi ), T (838, except Anelosimus sallee ).

Description.

Female: Total length 5.64 Cephalothorax 2.54 long, 1.79 wide, 0.63 high. Sternum 1.30 long, 1.11 wide, extending halfway between coxae IV, dark brown. Abdomen 3.10 long, 2.45 wide, 2.63 high, color and pattern as in Fig. 14A. Eyes subequal in size about 0.16 in diameter. Clypeus height about 2 times one AME diameter. Chelicerae with one large tooth, 3-4 denticles retrolaterally. Leg 1 femur 3.17, patella 0.85, tibia 2.75, metatarsus 2.38, tarsus 1.07. Leg formula 1243. Legs are light brown-yellow with dark brown at junctions between tibia and metatarsus, and metatarsus and tarsus. 5 small trichobothria dorsally on tibiae, 4 dorsally on metatarsi.

Variation: Total length 5.50-5.70. Cephalothorax 2.50-2.55 long. Femur I 3.10-3.20.

Distribution.

Only known from type locality.

Natural history.

As in other species of this group a female can be found in its web with close to 50 juveniles and juveniles appear to cohabit in the web until close to adulthood.