Psechrus wade, Bayer, Steffen, 2014

Bayer, Steffen, 2014, Seven new species of Psechrus and additional taxonomic contributions to the knowledge of the spider family Psechridae (Araneae), Zootaxa 3826 (1), pp. 1-54 : 38-40

Psechrus wade sp. nov.

Figs 22 , 27 C,F, 36

Type material. Holotype ♂ ( SB 1200 ): PHILIPPINES: Luzon: Sorsogon Prov.: Bulusan , Mount Bulusan-BicolRegion, rain forest, 12°44'59.3''N, 124°05'44.6''E, Y.-C. Su leg. 03.IX.2005, field number: PSp-ASp 2004H-1 ind./ F1/MO, SMF.

Etymology. The specific name is a term in honour of a group of good friends of mine (Christian Dilger, Thomas Mitschang, Torsten Müller & Holger Stenschke), who accompany me every once in a while for hiking and thus getting me “clear-headed” again; term is part of Torsten’s nickname; term “ wade ” (noun) in apposition.

Diagnosis. Males distinguished from those of all other Psechrus species by the following characters in combination: (1) embolus medium sized (somewhat shorter than the width of tegulum), continuously narrowing from basal to distal section ( Figs 22 B, 27C), without apophyses and without distinct shouldered base; (2) conductor narrow, less than ¼ of the width of tegulum ( Fig. 22 B); (3) sperm duct broad U-shaped, occupying the entire width of the distal half of tegulum in ventral view ( Figs 22 B, 27C) (4) neither tegulum nor palpal tibia with any processes.

Description. Male (holotype in bad condition): Body and eye measurements: Carapace length 7.5, maximal carapace width 5.6, anterior width of carapace 2.8, opisthosoma length 10.3, opisthosoma width 3.3. Eyes: AME 0.40, ALE 0.45, PME 0.46, PLE 0.46, AME–AME 0.19, AME–ALE 0.03, PME–PME 0.21, PME–PLE 0.31, AME–PME 0.49, ALE–PLE 0.44, clypeus height at AME 1.03, clypeus height at ALE 0.76.

Cheliceral furrow with three promarginal and four retromarginal teeth.

Spination: Palp: 131, 110 (prolateral one less than half as long as dorsal one), 1101 (all spines only ca. 1/4 the length and width of spines on femur); legs: femur I 757, II 877, III–IV 656; patella I–IV 000; tibia I–II 3038, III 3135{3136}, IV 3136; metatarsus I–III 3036, IV 3037.

Measurements of palp and legs: Palp 8.6 [3.2, 1.5, 1.4, 2.5], I 80.4 [21.8, 3.5, 21.9, 23.8, 9.4], II 59.2 [16.2, 3.0, 14.7, 17.8, 7.5], III 39.6 [11.4, 2.4, 9.2, 11.5, 5.1], IV 63.8 [18.7, 2.9, 15.2, 19.1, 7.9]. Leg formula: 1423. FEMI+MTT-I/CL=6.08, thus legs in relation to other Psechrus species (and if put into relation with carapace length) very long.

Palpal femur modified with ventral bulge ( Fig. 22 D), this more conspicuous than in P. cebu ( Bayer 2012, fig. 79 d). Macrosetae ventrally on coxae of leg I, if considered as such, in form of 1–2 very inconspicuous setae on apical rim.

Copulatory organ. Cymbium with dense dorsal scopula covering slightly more than ½ of cymbium ( Fig. 27 F), in retrolateral view distal section of cymbium rather broad ( Figs 22 C, 27F) in relation to many other Psechrus species; tegulum more than 1.5 times longer than broad, distalmost section narrowest ( Fig. 22 B); conductor in prolateral view very narrow and with undulated ventral margin ( Fig. 22 A), arising in an 11:30–12:00 o’clock position on tegulum ( Fig. 22 B); embolus of simple shape ( Figs 22 B–C, 27C), distal tip clearly narrower than basal section ( Figs 22 B, 27C); subtegulum in ventral view slightly protruding underneath tegulum ( Figs 22 B, 27C), visible in prolateral view ( Fig. 22 A).

Female: unknown.

Colouration (see also description for Psechrus in Bayer 2012): Median bands on carapace serrated, lateral bands also serrated and in comparison with other Psechrus species broad (broadest section ca. 3 diameters of PME). Light longitudinal line ventrally on opisthosoma medium-sized and subdistally broken. Distal portion (patch) of that line as broad as pre-subdistal section. If measured centrally on opisthosoma, the width of the line is ca. 0.5 of one half of the cribellum.

Taxonomic remarks. The Luzonian species Psechrus huberi sp. nov. is represented by a sole female. It can be excluded that the male holotype of P. w ad e sp. nov. is conspecific with P. huberi sp. nov. for the following reasons: P. wade sp. nov. is very similar to P. ce b u, therefore a close relationship between these two species is highly likely. Accordingly, I expect the female of P. w ad e sp. nov. to have a longer median septum and less conspicuous spermathecal heads than in P. huberi sp. nov.. Moreover, there is molecular data that provides evidence that P. huberi sp. nov. and P. wade sp. nov. are not conspecific. The COI sequences of both P. huberi sp. nov. and P. w ade sp. nov. were examined. The sequence distance found was ca. 9% and the clades were recovered at different positions within a certain subtree of a preliminary tree of the genus Psechrus (Bayer, unpublished data).

Distribution. Philippines (Luzon) ( Fig. 36 ).

Figures

FIGURE 22. Psechrus wade sp. nov., male holotype (SB 1200, SMF) from Bulusan, Sorsogon Prov., Luzon, Philippines: left pedipalp. A. prolateral, B. ventral, C. retrolateral view. D. Palpal femur, retrolateral view.

FIGURE 27. Psechrus spp., photographic images of male pedipalps, ventral (A – C), prolateral (E) and retrolateral (D, F) view. A, D. Psechrus omistes sp. nov. B, E. Psechrus quasillus sp. nov.. C, F. Psechrus wade sp. nov.. A, D. Holotype (SB 1221, MHNG) from Bukit Barisan, Lampung Prov., Sumatra, Indonesia. B, E. Paratype SB 1223, MHNG, from Bau, Sarawak Prov., Borneo, Malaysia. C, F. Holotype (SB 1200, SMF) from Bulusan, Sorsogon Prov., Luzon, Philippines.

FIGURE 36. Distribution of Psechrus on the Philippines. The distribution of the already described species P. schwendingeri Bayer, 2012 and P. cebu Murphy, 1986 are shown for the purpose of comparison.