Tainonia, 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 : 145-148

TAINONIA , NEW GENUS

TYPE SPECIES: Blechroscelis serripes Simon, 1893

ETYMOLOGY: The generic name honors the Taíno of the West Indies, who numbered perhaps millions at the time of the Spanish conquest but were almost completely destroyed by 1550. Today a few hundred people with Taíno background survive in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Gender feminine.

DIAGNOSIS: Large, eight-eyed pholcids (total length 5 8 mm), with elongate opisthosoma (fig. 560), spines in several rows on the legs of both sexes (fig. 567), simple but massive procursus, barely modified male chelicerae, flat, trapezoidal epigynum.

DESCRIPTION: See redescription of type species below. The other, as yet undescribed, species seem to differ only in details of the genitalia (procursus, bulb, epigynum).

MONOPHYLY: The type species shares with the undescribed species the spines in several rows on the legs, and the overall unique shape of the procursus (a massive, slightly curved rod: figs. 562 563).

GENERIC RELATIONSHIPS: The eye pattern (large distance between PME and ALE) is similar to typical genera of the New World clade. The bulb, with its slightly spiraling sclerotized apophysis, is similar to Priscula , but Tainonia has a very distinct pseudosegmentation and is therefore probably not a holocnemine. Whether or not the ventrodistal structure on the male palpal femur (fig. 564) is a homolog of the pup apophysis of the Modisimus group is unknown. In sum, Tainonia might be a primitive element of the New World clade, but the phylogenetic position is obscure.

COMPOSITION: Only the type species is described. See Note below for further, as yet undescribed, species.

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from Hispaniola ( Haiti and Dominican Republic).

Tainonia serripes (Simon, 1893) , new combination Figures 560 569

Blechroscelis serripes Simon, 1893b: 479 481, 483. Bryant 1948: 366 367, fig. 46. Huber, 1997b: 578, figs. 2A D.

TYPE: Female holotype from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic ; date and collector not given, in MNHN (6832), examined (Huber, 1997b).

DIAGNOSIS: Large pholcid, distinguished from as yet undescribed congeners (see Note below) by minor details in the shape of procursus and epigynum (figs. 562 563, 568).

NOTE: The main point in the present paper is that Tainonia serripes Simon is not closely related to the South American pholcids Simon and other workers called Blechroscelis (now Mesabolivar ), but is apparently an isolated element of the New World fauna, deserving the rank of a genus. There is more than one species on Hispaniola, and I am not sure that the material described herein is in fact conspecific with the female holotype, but convincing statements on species level can only be made after further collecting (e.g., of males at the type locality). Actually, there are at least three, possibly five or more species: (1) the present material; (2) serripes , which is here tentatively considered conspecific with the present material, but in which the epigynum seems to be shorter and wider; (3) the material studied by Bryant (1948) (females only), in which the epigynum has a pair of blackish structures embedded in membrane at the lateral margins of the genital opening; (4) a certainly different species, not treated in the present paper, from the Dominican Republic, Prov. Samana, Manuel Chiquito, 13 1♀ deposited in Instituto de Ecología y Sistematica del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente, Cuba; (5) another certainly different species, not treated herein, from the Dominican Republic, Prov. La Vega, La Cienaga, 13 in USNM, and 13 in AMNH.

MALE (Kenskoff, Haiti): Total length 7.8, carapace width 2.5; leg 1: (19.6+1.1+18.0 +28.3, tarsus missing), tibia 2: 12.5, tibia 3: 10.0, tibia 4: 11.9; tibia 1 l/d: 75. Habitus as in fig. 560; carapace ochre with light brown pattern, with deep thoracic groove, without pit; ocular area light to dark brown, moderately elevated with eight eyes (fig. 561), distance PME-ALE about 100% of PME diameter. Sternum ochre-yellow with brown margin, slightly darker medially, labium brown; chelicerae reddish-brown, densely covered with short hair, with pair of humps proximally, otherwise unmodified (fig. 561). Palps as in figs. 562 563, ochre-yellow to brown, procursus distally black; coxa retrolaterally with indistinct hump, femur proximally with retrolateral apophysis, and distally with distinctive ventral apophysis (fig. 564); procursus massive, but very simple (figs. 562 563), bulb with hook-shaped apophysis (fig. 562). Legs light brown, fem- ora and tibiae with light tips preceded by slightly darker rings; femora and tibiae with five rows of spines and several vertical hairs (fig. 567), metatarsi only dorsoproximally with some spines; legs without curved hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 6%; tarsus 1 (male from Savanette, Haiti) with over 30 pseudosegments (very distinct distally). Opisthosoma gray with some lines of whitish spots, ochre mark dorsally; genital plate brown, purple line from genital plate about ⅔ to spinnerets, tapering behind.

FEMALE (for holotype redescription see Huber, 1997b): In general very similar to male, but without humps on chelicerae; tibia 1 (N = 5) 13.1 15.5. Epigynum as in fig. 568, dorsal view as in fig. 569. The female from Kenskoff carried a relatively huge egg sac (diameter 5.6).

VARIATION: The second male examined ( Haiti: Savanette) was much smaller (carapace width 1.4, tibia 2: 9.0), but otherwise identical, and accompanied by two larger females. The shape of the epigynum may vary in the degree of sclerotization/pigmentation: in recently molted or bleached females, it appears short because the anterior part is not yet pigmented (cf. fig. 2c of holotype in Hub- er, 1997b), while in older females, the epigynum is long, as shown by Bryant (1948) and in fig. 568.

DISTRIBUTION: Known from various localities on Hispaniola (see Note above).

MATERIAL EXAMINED: DOMINICAN RE- PUBLIC: Santo Domingo: type above; near La Romana : July 31, 1935 (W. G. Hassler), 1 penultimate male, in MCZ. The following three vials contain the material studied by Bryant (1948): Puerto Plata, Apr. May 1941 (D. Hurst), 2♀ (2 vials) in MCZ ; Villa Altagracia , July 1938 (Darlington), 1 penultimate male, in MCZ. HAITI: Kenskoff, Sept. 6, 1935 (collector not given), 13 1♀ in AMNH ; Savanette , Valley of The Eex-2- Cheval, Apr. 23, 1958 (S. Lazell), 13 2♀ 2 juveniles in AMNH .

Figures

Figs. 560 564. Tainonia serripes (Simon), male. 560. Habitus, lateral view. 561. Prosoma, frontal view. 562. Left palp, prolateral view. 563. Left palp, retrolateral view. 564. Left palpal femur, prolateral view. Scale lines: 2.0 mm (560), 1.0 mm (561 564).