Anelosimus wallacei 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 : 35-36

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Theridiidae

Anelosimus wallacei Agnarsson, Veve & Kuntner sp. n. Fig. 13 A–E

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 Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin and co-author of the first paper on natural selection.

Diagnosis.

Anelosimus wallacei can be diagnosed from all other Anelosimus , expect Anelosimus andasibe and Anelosimus buffoni by the W pattern of the septum (Fig. 13C) and from Anelosimus andasibe and Anelosimus buffoni by substitutions A (241), G (379) and G (745). Anelosimus wallacei 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: C (283), G (679). 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: G (184, except Anelosimus buffoni and Anelosimus andasibe ), G (379, except Anelosimus hookeri ), G (511, except Anelosimus buffoni and Anelosimus andasibe ), G (745, expect Anelosimus nazariani and some Anelosimus ata ).

Description.

Female: Total length 4.72 Cephalothorax 2.14 long, 1.57 wide, 0.44 high. Sternum 1.26 long, 1.05 wide, extending halfway between coxae IV, dark brown. Abdomen 2.58 long, 2.01 wide, 1.78 high, color and pattern as in Fig. 13A. Eyes subequal in size about 0.13 in diameter. Clypeus height about 2 times one AME diameter. Chelicerae with one large tooth, three denticles retrolaterally. Leg 1 femur 2.35, patella 0.88, tibia 3.13, metatarsus 1.49, tarsus 0.76. Leg formula 1243. Legs light brown-yellow with brown at junctions between tibia and metatarsus, and metatarsus and tarsus. 5 small trichobrothia dorsally on tibiae, two dorsally on metatarsi.

Variation: Total length 4.72-4.8. Cephalothorax 2.14-2.25 long. Femur I 1.76-2.35.

Distribution.

Only known from type locality.

Natural history.

This species occurs almost exclusively in closed forest at its type locality. Like other species of the group it makes webs with females and spiderlings cohabiting, with up to 83 spiderlings found in a single web. Webs without adult females generally contained instar 4-6 juveniles.