Melychiopharis Simon, 1895

Santos, Adalberto J., Brescovit, Antonio D. & Levi, Herbert W., 2005, Melychiopharis: an atypical orb-weaving spider from South America (Araneae: Araneidae), Zootaxa 1016 (1), pp. 57-64 : 59

Melychiopharis Simon

Melychiopharis Simon 1895: 907 . Type­species by monotypy, M. cynips Simon, 1895 .

Diagnosis. Melychiopharis resembles some Hypognatha species in the opisthosoma covered with a dorsal, rounded scutum; it can be distinguished by the long, granulated carapace ( Figs. 1–3 ) and by the distinctive male and female genitalia. The male palp is relatively simple for an araneid, with the embolus arising from a large, rounded base; a pointed conductor and an unusually elongated, thin and proximally directed median apophysis ( Figs. 6–8 ). This palpal sclerite conformation resembles those of Heterognatha and Testudinaria species (Levi, in press), but differs by the long and filiform median apophysis. The female epigynum presents a posterior median oval depression in a lightly sclerotized, transparent area, with spermathecae and ducts visible ( Fig. 9 ).

Relationships. Simon (1895) implicitly proposed Hypognatha as a close relative to Melychiopharis . Indeed, several species of Hypognatha share with M. cynips the shape of the opisthosoma, the high clypeus, the simplified female epigynum and the proximally directed median apophysis ( Levi 1996). In addition, several of these characters can be seen in Heterognatha and Testudinaria (Levi, in press), which also share with Melychiopharis the simplified male genitalia. Hence, it is possible that these three genera form a monophyletic group closely related to Hypognatha . This hypothesis can be tested with a cladistic analysis including exemplars from all those genera and, possibly, new morphological characters.

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Melychiopharis cynips Simon 1895. 1, Male prosoma and opisthosoma, dorsal view. 2, Female prosoma and opisthosoma, dorsal view. 3, ditto, lateral view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 4–10. Melychiopharis cynips Simon 1895. 4, Male opisthosoma, ventral view. 5, Female prosoma, frontal view. 6, Male palp, ventral view. 7, Ditto, retrolateral view. 8, Ditto, dorsal. 9, Female epigynum, ventral view. 10, Female internal genitalia, dorsal view. C conductor, Cd copulatory ducts, E embolus, Fd fertilization ducts, M median apophysis, P paracymbium, S spermathecae. Scale bars: 4, 0.5 mm; 510, 0.1 mm.