Myrmarachne solitaria Peckham & Peckham, 1903

Wesołowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2014, An overview of the jumping spiders of Lesotho (Araneae: Salticidae), with descriptions of six new species, African Invertebrates 55 (2), pp. 229-229 : 253-254

Myrmarachne solitaria Peckham & Peckham, 1903

Figs 82–86 Myrmarachne solitaria Peckham & Peckham, 1903: 250 , plate 29, fig. 5; Wanless 1978: 75, fig. 46a–l; Wesołowska & Haddad 2009: 65, figs 124–126.

Diagnosis: The species belongs to the formicaria -group ( Wanless 1978). It is related to M. kiboschensis Lessert, 1925 , M. leleupi Wanless, 1978 and M. uelensis Wanless, 1978 , but the male may be easily distinguished from them by the lack of an apophysis on the cheliceral fang, while the female has relatively simpler looped spermathecae.

Description:

Measurements (♂ / ♀). Cephalothorax: length 1.9/2.0, height 0.7/0.6. Eye field: length 0.9/0.9, anterior width 1.0/1.0, posterior width 1.1/1.1. Abdomen: length 2.1/3.0, width 1.1/1.8.

Male.

Small, ant-like spider. Carapace higher in cephalic part, dark brown; eye field black with lustre, with reticulate puncturing; two trichobothria and a few white scales in furrow. Chelicerae long, fang without apophysis ( Fig. 82 ). Sternum dark brown, labium with light tip, whitish streaks along endites. Abdomen dark brown, blackish posteriorly, with sparse white hairs in constriction; venter dark; posterior spinnerets dark, anteriors yellowish. Legs slender, brown, with darker lines along sides of patellae and tibiae, distal segments yellowish. Pedipalps dark; tibial apophysis small and only slightly curved; distal section of embolus passing over bulb ( Figs 83, 84 ).

Female.

Description in Wesołowska and Haddad (2009). Epigyne small, with single median pouch ( Fig. 85 ); internal structure simple ( Fig. 86 ). A large, granulate accessory gland leads into the seminal duct between its membranous and sclerotized parts (visible only in right spermatheca. A similar structure has previously only been observed once in salticids, in Ballus chalybeius (Walckenaer, 1802) – see Wesołowska and Tomasiewicz 2008).

Material examined: Maseru district: 1♀ 1 imm. Mohale Dam, Islands , 29°25'S 28°06'E, 2060 m, under rocks, 14.xii.2003 ( NCA 2013 /3089) . Qacha’s Nek district: 1♂ Near Maghoareng village , 30°03'S 28°53'E, 2200 m, under rocks on mountainside, 6.xi.2003 ( NCA 2013 /3090) . Quthing district: 1♂ Letšeng-la-Letsie , 30°19'S 28°10'E, 2360 m, under rocks along lakeside, 12.xi.2003 ( NCA 2013 /3091) .

Distribution: Species previously known from South Africa. Recorded here from three isolated localities in southern and central Lesotho ( Fig. 93 ).

Figures

Figs 82–86. Myrmarachne solitaria, ♂ (82–84) and ♀ (85, 86): (82) chelicera, retromarginal view; (83) palpal organ, ventral view; (84) same, retrolateral view; (85) epigyne, ventral view; (86) internal structure of epigyne.

Fig. 93. Distribution of Salticidae from Lesotho.