Nita, Huber, Bernhard A. & El-Hennawy, Hisham K., 2007

Huber, Bernhard A. & El-Hennawy, Hisham K., 2007, On Old World ninetine spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae), with a new genus and species and the first record for Madagascar, Zootaxa 1635, pp. 45-53 : 46

Nita n. gen.

Type species. Nita elsaff , n. sp.

Etymology. The name is derived from Nit (Net, Neit, Neith), the goddess of weaving in ancient Egyptian mythology. Gender feminine.

Diagnosis and description. See single known species below.

Relationships. For cladistic analysis, we added Nita elsaff to the data matrix from Huber (2001) (the matrix that contains the largest number of ninetine taxa, final matrix available at http://www.uni-bonn.de/ ~bhuber1/matrices.html) and analysed it with NONA version 2.0 ( Goloboff 1993) using equal character weights. After collapsing of unsupported nodes and deletion of suboptimal trees, this resulted in 56 most parsimonious cladograms (185 steps, CI 37, RI 77). Among these cladograms, there were only two alternative topologies regarding the placement of Nita . First, as sister to all other ninetines, with the latter supported by the relative lengths of tibia 1/tibia 4. In Nita , this value (1.8/1.5=1.2) falls only slightly outside the usual range of ninetines (<1.15), making this a rather poorly supported solution. Second, as part of a tetrachotomy within ninetines, together with Aucana (2 species in the matrix) and Chisosa . This clade is supported by two characters: the absence (loss) of epiandrous spigots (ambiguous character state in Chisosa ), and the exposed tarsal organ. Exposed tarsal organs and the lack of epiandrous spigots are unique among ninetines, leading us to prefer this hypothesis. Biogeographically, this clade is now known from Chile and New Caledonia ( Aucana ), Texas and Baja California ( Chisosa ), and Egypt and Uzbekistan ( Nita ).