Maratus digitatus

Baehr, Barbara C. & Whyte, Robert, 2016, The Peacock Spiders (Araneae: Salticidae: Maratus) of the Queensland Museum, including six new species, Zootaxa 4154 (5), pp. 501-525 : 515

The Maratus digitatus group

( FIGURES 11 A‒I, 12A‒I, 13A‒I)

This group contains species with small flaps, displaying with one leg to one side and with inflated spinnerets (J. Otto, pers. comm.). They have an embolic disc with a broad smooth front and a broad spatulate embolic tip with the embolic opening at the frontal distal part enclosed by a hole ( Figs 11 A‒F) and a finger-like lateral process of embolic disc with pancake-stack shaped retrolateral ridges ( Figs 11 G‒I).

The group includes Maratus digitatus from northern NSW and south eastern Queensland, plus the new species Maratus eliasi from Queensland and Maratus ottoi from the Brisbane area .

Further SEM examination of the embolic disc will clarify if the Maratus digitatus group is the same as the Maratus calcitrans group ( Otto & Hill, 2015).

Figures

FIGURE 11 (A ‒ I). Maratus digitatus group males: A, D, G, M. eliasi Baehr & Whyte, sp. nov. holotype (QM-S 96335); B, E, H, M. ottoi Baehr & Whyte, sp. nov. holotype (QM-S 96332); C, F, I, Maratus digitatus Otto & Hill, 2012 (QM-S 47268); A ‒ C, palpal tip with embolic disc; D ‒ F, embolic disc frontal view; G ‒ I, palpal tip retrolateral view, embolic disc with flat retrolateral groove and finger shaped lateral process of embolic disc with pancake-stack shaped retrolateral ridges.