Namea gowardae, Rix & Wilson & Harvey, 2020

Rix, Michael G., Wilson, Jeremy D. & Harvey, Mark S., 2020, The open-holed trapdoor spiders (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Namea) of Australia’s D’Aguilar Range: revealing an unexpected subtropical hotspot of rainforest diversity, Zootaxa 4861 (1), pp. 71-91 : 80-82

Namea gowardae sp. nov.

( Figs 5, 10 , 13 , 19 a–c, 35–54) http://zoobank.org/?lsid= urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C97D93B3-A213-4265-831C-7B445BC5E309

Namea brisbanensis Raven, 1984: 12 (in part; cited paratype specimen QMB S774 from Mount Glorious ).

Namea sp . ‘Maiala’ Rix et al., 2020: 683 , 685, figs 2, 3.

Type material. AUSTRALIA: Queensland: male holotype, Mount Glorious , 5 January 1974, R. Raven ( QMB S774 ) . Paratypes: 1 female, D’Aguilar National Park, Mount Glorious, Maiala section, lower rainforest circuit, 27°19’54”S, 152°45’44”E, hand collected from burrow, rainforest, 2 February 2019, M. Rix, J. Wilson ( QMB S111377 DNA); 1 juvenile, same data ( QMB S111376 DNA); 1 juvenile, same data ( QMB S111378 DNA); 1 female, same data except 10 April 2019 ( QMB S111506 ) .

Diagnosis. Males of Namea gowardae can be distinguished from those of all other described congeners except N. brisbanensis by the morphology of tibia I, which has the standard brisbanensis -complex prolateral/ventral spination pattern (2pd–2pv–3v), plus a short macroseta v1 and largely asetose proventral ‘tibial bald zone’ between macrosetae pv1 and pv2 ( Figs 42, 44 ; cf. Fig. 18a ). Males can be further distinguished from those of N. brisbanensis by the smoothly sub-spherical shape of the palpal bulb ( Figs 45–47 ; cf. Fig. 18b ), the more slender profile of tibia I ( Fig. 44 ; cf. Fig. 18a ), and the shallower, concave ventro-distal excavation anterior to macroseta v1 ( Fig. 44 ; cf. Fig. 18a ).

Females are very similar in general appearance to those of N. brisbanensis ( Fig. 5 ; cf. Fig. 4 ), but can be distinguished by the shape of the receptacula, which are shorter and are each with a clearly defined, globose fundus ( Fig. 19c ; cf. Fig. 18c and Raven 1984, fig. 104).

Description (male holotype): Total length 15.7. Carapace 6.3 long, 5.5 wide. Abdomen 5.8 long, 3.7 wide. Carapace ( Fig. 35 ) dark chocolate-brown and sparsely setose; lateral margins with fringe of anteriorly curved, porrect black setae, longest posteriorly; fovea slightly procurved. Eye group ( Fig. 38 ) rectangular, twice as wide as long, PLE–PLE/ALE–ALE ratio 1.0; AME separated by less than their own diameter; PME separated by 4.2 X their own diameter; PME and PLE almost contiguous. Maxillae each with field of ca. 50–60 cuspules largely confined to inner proximal corner ( Fig. 39 ); labium without cuspules. Abdomen ( Figs 36, 41 ) oval [slightly damaged], faded beigebrown, covered with short, fine setae. Legs ( Figs 35, 42–44 ) tan brown, with light scopulae on tarsi I–IV and distal half of metatarsi I–II; tibia I with 2 prodorsal, 2 proventral, 3 ventral and 2 retrolateral macrosetae, and largely asetose proventral ‘tibial bald zone’ between macrosetae pv1 and pv2 ( Fig 42 ); macroseta v1 not reaching beyond ventro-distal margin of tibia I ( Fig. 44 ). Leg I: femur 5.5, patella 3.3, tibia 4.2, metatarsus 4.5, tarsus 2.8, total length 20.3. Leg I femur–tarsus/carapace length ratio 3.2. Pedipalpal tibia ( Figs 45–47 ) 2.5 X longer than wide, with isolated, proximal retroventral macroseta, 1 retrodistal macroseta, and 1 prodistal macroseta. Cymbium ( Figs 45–47 ) setose, with distal scopula. Bulb ( Figs 45–47 ) sub-spherical, with long, whip-like, reflexed embolus arising from ventral base of bulb.

Description (female QMB S111377): Total length 23.7. Carapace 8.6 long, 6.8 wide. Abdomen 10.5 long, 6.7 wide. Carapace ( Fig. 48 ) chocolate-brown with darker brown reticulated patterning (black in life; Fig. 5 ) and sparsely setose; fovea procurved. Eye group ( Fig. 51 ) rectangular, twice as wide as long, PLE–PLE/ALE–ALE ratio 1.0; AME separated by less than their own diameter; PME separated by 4.6 X their own diameter; PME and PLE separated by slightly less than diameter of PME. Maxillae each with field of ca. 110 cuspules confined to heel and inner proximal corner ( Fig. 52 ); labium without cuspules. Abdomen ( Figs 49, 54 ) oval, dark charcoalgrey with scattered beige-brown mottling dorsally (dark brown-black in life; Fig. 5 ), and beige-brown ventrally with dark brown mottling and markings, the latter concentrated slightly anterior to spinnerets; covered with short, fine setae. Legs ( Fig. 48 ) dark brown and tan (black with honey-red patellae and tibiae in life; Fig. 5 ), with scopulae on tarsi I–IV, metatarsus I and distal half of metatarsus II; tibia I with 2 prolateral, 4 proventral (2 situated prodistally) and 3 ventral macrosetae; metatarsus I with 4 ventral macrosetae (partly obscured by scopula). Leg I: femur 5.8, patella 4.1, tibia 4.4, metatarsus 4.1, tarsus 2.6, total length 21.1. Leg I femur–tarsus/carapace length ratio 2.4. Receptacula ( Fig. 19c ) outwardly curved, ‘horseshoe-shaped’, and each with a laterally directed, globose fundus.

Etymology. The specific epithet is named in honour of Marion Goward, “for devoting her life to re-vegetation and conservation around Brisbane”. This dedication was nominated by Rebecca Williams – the winner of Queensland Museum’s ‘Name a Spider Competition’ for 2020.

Distribution. Namea gowardae is endemic to the D’Aguilar Range, where it is known only from rainforest at Mount Glorious ( Fig. 2 ).

Remarks. This attractive species ( Fig. 5 ) has a seemingly restricted distribution in the higher elevation rainforests around Mount Glorious, where at the Maiala section of D’Aguilar National Park ( Fig. 3 ) the spiders are nonetheless locally common. Their open burrows ( Fig. 10 ) and general appearance are very similar to N. brisbanensis (cf. Figs 4, 5 ), from which they can only be properly (but easily) distinguished upon close examination of the male or female genitalia, or by using molecular sequencing methods. Little is known of its biology or life history, other than that the holotype male was collected in summer (when males of N. brisbanensis are also active).

Figures

FIGURE 13. Phylogeny of the genus Namea modified from Rix et al. (2020; fig. 2), inferred from a partitioned Bayesian analysis of that study’s ‘FULL’ dataset (151 taxa, 5,261 bp, 50% majority-rule consensus tree). Clades corresponding to 30 morpho-species OTUs are collapsed for the genus Namea (square brackets denote the number of specimens included in each clade), and nodes have a posterior probability of ≥ 0.98 unless otherwise stated. Seven species recorded from the D’Aguilar Range (south-eastern Queensland) are highlighted in enlarged bold text; note that specimens of an eighth species, N. gloriosa sp. nov., were not sequenced for this study.

FIGURES 4–12. Live habitus images and burrows of Namea from the D’Aguilar Range (south-eastern Queensland). 4–8, Live habitus images: 4, female N. brisbanensis Raven, 1984 from Gold Creek Reserve (note left leg IV missing); 5, paratype female N. gowardae sp. nov. from Mount Glorious; 6, female N. salanitri Raven, 1984 from Mount Mee; 7, female N. dahmsi Raven, 1984 from Clear Mountain; 8, subadult juvenile N. nigritarsus sp. nov. from Mount Glorious. 9–12, Burrow images: 9, burrow of unidentified Namea (N. nigritarsus sp. nov. or N. nebo sp. nov.; not collected) from Mount Nebo, with spider at entrance; 10, burrow of N. gowardae sp. nov. from Mount Glorious, with spider at entrance; 11, burrow of N. dahmsi from Clear Mountain; 12, burrow of N. nigritarsus sp. nov. from Mount Mee. Images 4–8, 10, 11 by M. Rix; 9, 12 by J. Wilson.

FIGURES 14–21. Comparative morphology of Namea from the D’Aguilar Range (south-eastern Queensland); each figure for each species depicts (a) the male tibia I in standardised prolateral view, (b) the male pedipalp in retrolateral view, +/- (c) the female cleared genitalia in dorsal view (if known): 14, N. gloriosa sp. nov. (QMB S10269); 15, N. nigritarsus sp. nov. (QMB S111534); 16, N. nebo sp. nov. (QMB S65274); 17, N. excavans Raven, 1984 (QMB S813); 18, N. brisbanensis Raven, 1984 (QMB S767 [male], S111397 [female]); 19, N.gowardae sp. nov.(QMB S774 [male], S111377 [female]); 20, N. salanitri Raven, 1984 (QMB S1166 [male], S111396 [female; with epigastric lobes highlighted*); 21, N. dahmsi Raven, 1984 (QMB S88018 [male tibia I], S800 [male pedipalp], S111481 [female; note bent right spermathecal fundus]). Tibial macrosetae are coloured and labelled according to their relative position (dark blue, prodorsal [pd]; red, prolateral [p] or proventral [pv]; dark grey, ventral [v]; light blue, retroventral [rv]).

FIGURES 35–44. Namea gowardae sp. nov., male holotype (QMB S774) from Mount Glorious (south-eastern Queensland), somatic morphology: 35–36, carapace and abdomen, dorsal view; 37, cephalothorax, lateral view; 38, eyes, dorsal view; 39, mouthparts, ventral view; 40–41, cephalothorax and abdomen, ventral view; 42, leg I, prolateral view (inset shows detail of tibia, and the location of the ‘tibial bald zone’); 43, leg I tibia, retrolateral view; 44, leg I tibia, profile in standardised prolateral view, showing relative position of macrosetae (pd, prodorsal; pv, proventral; v, ventral); note the broken seta (*) at position pv1. Scale bars = 3.0 mm.

FIGURES 45–47. Namea gowardae sp. nov., male holotype (QMB S774) from Mount Glorious (south-eastern Queensland), pedipalp: 45, retrolateral view; 46, retroventral view; 47, prolateral view. Scale bar = 3.0 mm.

FIGURES 48–54. Namea gowardae sp. nov., female paratype (QMB S111377) from Maiala, Mount Glorious (south-eastern Queensland), somatic morphology: 48–49, carapace and abdomen, dorsal view; 50, cephalothorax, lateral view; 51, eyes, dorsal view; 52, mouthparts, ventral view; 53–54, cephalothorax and abdomen, ventral view (note that genitalia have been dissected from ventral abdominal epigastric region). Scale bars = 3.0 mm.

FIGURES 1–3. The D’Aguilar Range of south-eastern Queensland: 1, elevational heat map showing upland areas surrounding Brisbane, and the relative position of the D’Aguilar Range; 2, topographic map of the D’Aguilar Range (in shaded relief), with major localities highlighted; 3, typical habitat for Namea on rainforest bank at Mount Glorious (Maiala section). Image 3 copyright Queensland Museum (used with permission).