Talanites dunini Platnick & Ovtsharenko, 1991

Levy, Gershom, 2009, New ground-spider genera and species with annexed checklist of the Gnaphosidae (Araneae) of Israel, Zootaxa 2066, pp. 1-49 : 23-24

Talanites dunini Platnick & Ovtsharenko, 1991

Figs 51, 52

Talanites dunini Platnick & Ovtsharenko, 1991: 117 , figs 5–8, ♂Ψ from Azerbaijan.

Note. Talanites was known from Israel only by the type-species T. fervidus Simon, 1893 ( Levy, 1999a) . Pitfall trapping at Geshur , Southern Golan , Israel, elicited adult specimens of T. dunini known from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The females from Geshur , reported below, conform to T. dunini , while the accompanying male is identical to T. fervidus as depicted by Levy (1999a, figs 11–13); in the palpal drawings (figs 1, 2) by Platnick & Ovtsharenko, a disjoined transparent conductor of the male palpus was either overlooked or fused with a frontal whitish tegular outgrowth.The male T. fervidus from Geshur is not redescribed here.

Description. Colouration light brown. ALE largest; PME nearly circular. Chelicerae with 3 pro- and 2 retromarginal teeth.

Female. Measurements (2 ΨΨ): total length 4.4–5.1; carapace length 2.0–2.1, width 1.6, index 1.25–1.31; labial index 0.90; clypeal index 0.75–1.25; MOQ index 8.3–8.4; legs length: I 5.0–5.5, II 4.4–4.8, III 4.3–4.4, IV 6.1–6.6; patella-tibia index 0.95–1.05.

Epigynum . Epigynal plate with large discernible deep brown, robust spermathecae bordered anteriorly by dark sinuous rim ( Fig. 51 ). Spermathecae with light center encircled by deep dark broad zone ( Fig. 52 ). Diagnosis. The shape of the epigynal plate with the sinuous rim and the compact spermathecae clearly separate the female of T. dunini from all other Talanites species.

Distribution. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Israel - new record. Records. Israel: Geshur , southern Golan .

Figures

FIGURES 51, 52. Talanites dunini Platnick & Ovtsharenko, 1991, Ψ. 51. Epigynum, ventral view. 52. Spermathecae, dorsal (inner) view.