Blancoa, HUBER, 2000

HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2000, New World Pholcid Spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae): A Revision At Generic Level, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2000 (254), pp. 1-348 : 330-332

BLANCOA , NEW GENUS

TYPE SPECIES: Blancoa piacoa , new species.

ETYMOLOGY: The generic name honors the Venezuelan poet Andrés Eloy Blanco, author of ‘‘Angelitos Negros.’’

DIAGNOSIS: Tiny to small (total length ~ 1.2–1.5 mm), six-eyed pholcids with medium-long legs, globular opisthosoma; distinguished from similar New World genera ( Canaima , Tupigea ) by the extremely globular male palpal tibia (figs. 1338, 1349).

DESCRIPTION: Total length ~ 1.2–1.5 mm. Carapace with distinct thoracic groove, ocular area moderately elevated, with six eyes; AME completely absent in B. piacoa , n. sp.; reduced to black spots in B. guacharo , n. sp.; distance PME-ALE relatively large (~ 60% of PME diameter). Sternum without anterior humps. Male clypeus unmodified. Basal segment of male chelicerae unmodified in B. piacoa , with pair of thick club-shaped hairs and small apophyses in B. guacharo ; without stridulatory ridges; cheliceral fangs with basal apophyses in B. piacoa , unmodified in B. guacharo ; male palpal coxa with indistinct retrolateral apophysis, femur with distinct retrolateral apophysis proximally, procursus and bulb variable. Tarsal organ exposed (examined: B. piacoa ). Legs relatively long (leg 1 about 8 X body length; tibia 1 l/d 52 and 71 in the two species included); leg 1 longest, leg 2 slightly longer than leg 4, leg 3 shortest; legs without spines and curved hairs; with some vertical hairs on tibiae (in B. piacoa only); retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 3% in B. guacharo , at 21% in B. piacoa ; tarsus 1 with ~ 15 pseudosegments in B. piacoa , ~ 27 in B. guacharo . Opisthosoma globular. Male gonopore without epiandrous spigots (examined: B. piacoa ). ALS with only one piriform gland spigot each (examined: B. piacoa : fig. 182), other spinnerets typical for family.

Sexual dimorphism slight (female of B. guacharo unknown). Epigynum very simple.

MONOPHYLY: The two species included share the extremely inflated male palpal tibia. However, this character is not unique for the genus (see e.g., Guaranita , Kambiwa ) but the overall similarity and the fact that both are from the same geographic area is here tentatively used to argue for their phylogenetic closeness.

GENERIC RELATIONSHIPS: Canaima is sim- ilar in habitus and eye pattern, and occurs also in Venezuela, but has a ‘‘normal’’ (i.e., not inflated) palpal tibia, short cheliceral entapophyses, and humps on the sternum. The fang apophyses in B. piacoa are strikingly similar to Galapa (compare figs. 30, 32), but that genus is otherwise very different in several aspects (no thoracic groove, AME large, stridulatory ridges on male chelicerae, palpal coxa without retrolateral apophysis, tarsal organ capsulate, gonopore with epiandrous spigots, ALS with several piriform gland spigots), so the similarity is here interpreted as convergence.

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from northeastern Venezuela (Delta Amacuro, Monagas, Bolívar).