Guaranita, 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 : 96-97

GUARANITA , NEW GENUS

TYPE SPECIES: Guaranita goloboffi , new species.

ETYMOLOGY: The generic name is derived from Guaraní, an Indian language spoken today by more than 2.5 million people in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Gen- der feminine.

DIAGNOSIS: Tiny pholcids (total length ~ 1 mm), with short legs, globular opisthosoma, eight eyes; distinguished from other short-legged genera by the large flap dorsally on the procursus (arrows in figs. 374, 378, 380).

DESCRIPTION: Total length ~ 0.9 1.2 mm. Carapace without thoracic groove, ocular area hardly elevated, with eight eyes, AME only slightly smaller than others; distance PME-ALE small (~ 30% of PME diameter). Male clypeus unmodified. Male chelicerae with pair of long frontal apophyses, with few stridulatory ridges laterally (fig. 372). Male sternum with small anterior humps. Male palpal coxa without retrolateral apophysis, femur and tibia relatively short and enlarged, procursus with dorsal flap and dorsally bent distal elements; bulb with oblique distal apophysis; tarsal organ not examined. Legs very short (leg 1 about 2 × body length; tibia 1 l/d: 9 11), leg formula 4123; legs without spines, without curved and vertical hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 very distal (at ~ 57 62%); tarsus 1 with only ~ 5 6 pseudosegments. Opisthosoma globular. Male epigastric system and spinnerets not examined.

Sexual dimorphism slight; epigynum ex- tremely simple externally. I could not find pore plates.

MONOPHYLY: The three species included share details of the procursus (dorsal flap, distal elements bent dorsally), the shape of the bulb (with distal oblique apophysis), and have an indistinguishable epigynum (the female of G. yaculica , n. sp., is unknown).

GENERIC RELATIONSHIPS: The genus is probably close to several other genera of short-legged pholcids with globular opisthosoma (the tarsal organ has not been examined, but is predicted to be of ninetine type; cf. figs. 73 78). Galapa has a similar flap dorsally on the procursus (arrows in figs. 383, 387), but the bulb and chelicerae in Galapa are completely different from those in Guaranita . Otherwise, the generic relationships are obscure.

DISTRIBUTION/COMPOSITION: Three described species, from northern Argentina and southern Brazil.