Thyenula sempiterna Wesołowska, 1999

Wesołowska, Wanda, Azarkina, Galina N. & Russell-Smith, Anthony, 2014, Euophryine jumping spiders of the Afrotropical Region-new taxa and a checklist (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae), Zootaxa 3789 (1), pp. 1-72 : 60-61

Thyenula sempiterna Wesołowska, 1999

Figs 222–224

Thyenula sempiterna Wesołowska 1999: 169 , figs 74–76.

Material. SOUTH AFRICA, Limpopo Province, Soutpansberg Mts , 23°00'S: 29°25'E, 1430 m a.s.l., woodland, 1 male, 30 November 2006, leg. P. Tshivhandekano ( UV 1664 ) ; same data, leaf litter sifting, 1 female, leg. S.H. Foord, B. van der Waal, A. Mboyi & V. Gelebe ( UV 1871 ) ; same data, 1 male ( UV 1916 ) ; same data, 1 male ( UV 1903 ) ; same data, 1 female ( UV 1907 ) ; same data, 2 females ( UV 1924 ) ; same locality, 1 female, 1 November 2004, leg. M. Mafadza ( UV 287 ) ; same locality, gallery forest, 1084 m a.s.l., 2 females, 22 November 2005, leg. F. Mbedzi ( UV 1382 ) ; same locality, open woodland ( Burkea africana ), 1 female, 27 November 2006, leg. P. Tshivhandekano ( UV 2286 ) ; same locality, woodland, 2 females, 2 December 2006, leg. M. Muthapuli ( UV 1876 ) ; same locality, 1579 m a.s.l., open sedge-land, branch beating, 1 female, 1 December 2006, leg. M. Mashau ( UV 1889 ) ; Lajuma Mountain Retreat, pitfall traps, 23°01'S, 29°27'E, 1 male, 13 July 2007, leg. M. van der Merwe ( NCA 98 /34) ; SOUTH AFRICA, Entabeni, 23°00'S: 30°13'E, sheltered Afromontane forest , 1262 m a.s.l., branch beating, 1 female, 11 February 2008, leg. M. Muthapuli ( UV) ; Legalameetse Nature Reserve , Farm Malta, 24°09'S: 30°15'E, 931 m a.s.l., riverine flood plain, 1 female, 18 January 2009, leg. N. Hahn ( NCA 2010 /5255) .

Diagnosis. This species resembles T. wesolowskae Zhang &Maddison, 2012 but may be distinguished from it by the structure of genitalia. The male palp has a broader bulb, clearly shorter embolus with a different form of the embolar disc. The epigyne has shorter seminal ducts with broad inlet parts and bean-shaped spermathecae (versus rounded in T. wesolowskae ).

Description. Measurements (male). Cephalothorax: length 2.0, width 1.5, height 1.2. Abdomen: length 1.8, width 1.5. Eye field: length 0.9, anterior width 1.4, posterior width 1.4.

Male. General appearance as in Fig. 222 . Carapace moderately high, oval, brown with darker ocular area. Brown hairs cover carapace, long brown bristles on eye field anteriorly. “Cheeks” and clypeus brown, covered with transparent hairs. Chelicerae dark brown. Sternum yellowish brown. Abdomen yellowish brown, with whitish yellow stripe on the anterior rim, venter brownish. Book-lung covers and spinnerets brown. Legs yellow, only tibiae and metatarsi of legs I brownish, patellae and tibiae I with dense long hairs ventrally. Pedipalps yellow with brown cymbium. Structure of palpal organ as in Figs 223, 224 , bulb large with long proximal lobe, embolus wide, forming single loop, embolic spiral great.

Female. Description in Wesołowska (1999).

Distribution. Known from eastern Zimbabwe and the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

Remarks. The male of this species is described here for the first time.

Figures

FIGURES 222–224. Thyenula sempiterna Wesołowska, 1999. 222 male, dorsal view; 223 palpal organ, ventrolateral view; 224 palpal organ, retrolateral view.