Hersilia Audouin, 1826

Mirshamsi, Omid, Zamani, Alireza & Marusik, Yuri M., 2016, A survey of Hersiliidae (Arachnida: Araneae) of Iran with description of one new genus and two new species, Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 50, pp. 1447-1461 : 1453

Genus Hersilia Audouin, 1826

Type species

Hersilia caudata Audouin, 1826 , from Egypt.

Diagnosis

Hersilia resembles Murricia Simon, 1882 in the number of cheliceral teeth (three promargianal, 6 – 10 retromarginal), two segmented metatarsi of legs I, II and IV, four pairs of dorsal abdominal muscular sigillae and the strong recurvation of anterior and posterior eye rows. Members of Hersilia can be distinguished from Murricia by their first pair of legs, which are usually longer than the second pair; their embolus, which does not complete a full revolution; and the presence of short and simple insemination ducts and accessory glands ( Baehr and Baehr 1993; Rheims and Brescovit 2004).

Hersilia well differs from other hersiliids occurring in the Middle East by its large size, over 8 mm (other genera are smaller than 6 mm), long spinnerets (posterior lateral spinnerets longer than carapace, whereas in other genera shorter than carapace) and two-segmented metatarsi I – II and IV.

Comments

Baehr and Baehr (1993) revised the Hersilia of the Oriental region. The genus was split into 10 species groups: albomaculata , asiatica , australiensis , caudata , facialis , flagellifera , impressifrons , kinabaluensis , pectinata and savignyi . Revision of African Hersilia ( Foord & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2006) revealed only five species groups, three of which occur in the Oriental region and two of which are endemic to Africa: the aldabrensis and baforti groups.

Judging from the shape of the copulatory organs, the genus is not monophyletic. Species groups differ in the number of sclerites in the bulbus, from one (just corkscrew embolus) in the kinabaluensis group to several in the asiatica group. In the kinabaluensis group the embolus is directed anteriorly, while in the asiatica group it is stretched subventrally, and in flagellifera and caudata groups the embolus is coil shaped and ‘ wraps ’ the tegulum. The embolus in the australiensis group is S-shaped and very thick in comparison to that of other groups. Hersilia sundaica Baehr & Baehr, 1993 , which has been assigned to the impressifrons group, has a very complex embolus (embolic complex). The tegular (= median) apophysis also strongly differs in different groups. In some groups, the patella or tibia of male palp is modified, while in most of the groups the tibia and patella are not modified. Epigynes in different groups have considerable differences. Some groups have only one pair of round receptacles, while other species groups have three pairs. In many species, epigynal parts cannot be homologised. This genus was not reported from Iran before.