Thyenula armata Wesołowska, 2001

Wesołowska, Wanda & Haddad, Charles R., 2014, An overview of the jumping spiders of Lesotho (Araneae: Salticidae), with descriptions of six new species, African Invertebrates 55 (2), pp. 229-229 : 259-260

Thyenula armata Wesołowska, 2001

Figs 72 , 98, 99

Thyenula armata Wesołowska, 2001: 261 , figs 1–6, 10, 11.

Wesołowska (2001) described both sexes.

Diagnosis: The female is recognised by the structure of the epigyne, which has very long seminal ducts forming a loop in the anterior part of the epigyne (see Wesołowska 2001: fig. 10). The male (not treated here) is characterised by the presence of a strongly sclerotised keel on the abdominal venter (see Wesołowska 2001: fig. 3).

Description:

Female.

Measurements. Cephalothorax: length 2.2–2.4, width 1.4–1.5, height 0.9–1.0. Eye field: length 0.9–1.1, anterior and posterior width 1.2–1.4. Abdomen: length 3.0–3.1, width 2.4–2.5.

General appearance as in Fig. 72 . Carapace moderately high, dark brown, clothed in grey hairs, among them long brown bristles, numerous on eye field. Clypeus covered with light hairs. Chelicerae dark brown, labium and endites brownish with wide light tips, sternum almost black with some light hairs. Abdomen dark brown with traces of lighter markings, densely covered with brown and grey hairs, with scattered fawn hairs. Sides and venter brownish grey. Spinnerets dark. Legs light brown with darker rings on distal ends of femora and bases and tips of other segments. Epigyne with large shallow depression ( Fig. 98 ). Seminal ducts long, forming loops anteriorly, their inlet parts thin and very weakly sclerotized; small accessory glands leading into terminal parts of the ducts; spermathecae large, bean-shaped ( Fig. 99 ).

Material examined: Thaba-Tseka district: 3♀ Near Thaba-Tseka , 29°30'S 28°28'E, 2840 m, under rocks, grassland, 17.iii.2013, leg. J. van Niekerk ( NCA 2013 / 3113 ) .

Distribution: Previously known only from the type locality, Golden Gate National Park in the eastern Free State Province, South Africa. Recorded from a single locality in central Lesotho ( Fig. 102 ).

Remarks: These specimens are clearly darker than the type specimens. The body is uniformly dark ( Fig. 72 ), whereas specimens from South Africa have two light stripes on the thoracic part of the carapace.

Figures

Figs 69–73. Digital microscope photographs of the dorsolateral (69) and dorsal (70–73) habitus of jumping spiders from Lesotho: (69, 70) Massagris mohale sp. n., ♂ (69) and ♀ (70); (71) Pellenes geniculatus, ♀; (72) Thyenula armata, ♀; (73) Thyenula sp., ♀.

Figs 98–101. Thyenula armata and Thyenula sp., ♀. (98, 100) epigynes, ventral view; (99, 101) internal structure of epigynes.

Fig. 102. Distribution of Salticidae from Lesotho.