Maratus sarahae Waldock 2013

Maratus sarahae was first collected by David Knowles at Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Range National Park in 1988 (Waldock 2013). The M. sarahae figured in this paper were found more recently by Jürgen Otto at Bluff Knoll (SEP-OCT 2011, S 34° 22' 35.5'', E 118° 15' 14.8'', elevation ~1036 m; Figures 12:2, 15: locality 4). Preserved specimens drawn from this group are presently in the collection of Jürgen Otto.

Male features (Figures 24-30, Table 2). See Waldock (2013) for a description of the holotype male (WAM T125614). Here we illustrate characters of a male Maratus sarahae (♂#5) from Bluff Knoll, and compare these to corresponding characters of a male M. mungaich (Table 2). The eye region of M. sarahae is dark, with three indistinct longitudinal tracts of dark red-brown scales. Except for scattered white scales, particularly around the front eyes, the carapace is dark, but like M. mungaich has a bright white marginal band. The fan (Figure 25, Table 2) has a similar pattern with respect to the presence of a dark central figure and a dark spot on each flap, but differs significantly with respect to details of its pattern of scales. The femur III of M. sarahae bears dorsal and ventral fringes of long white setae, much more pronounced than that seen in M. mungaich . The tibia III has both white and black setae, with a fringe of long setae beneath. The metatarsus and proximal tarsus III of M. sarahae is covered with many white scales, including a prominent fringe of white setae beneath. The distal tarsus III also bears a prominent cover of long black setae, not seen in M. mungaich . As in M. mungaich, tenent setae of the foot pads are grey.

As shown in Figure 30, the male pedipalp resembles that of other Maratus, and is considered to be of limited use for identification. The appearance of the terminal portion of the coiled embolus in published drawings of Maratus and related euophryines varies greatly depending on the style of the artist, and the exact angle of the view that is drawn. The terminal part of this coil in M. sarahae has a longer, outer projection, and a shorter, inner projection. This is similar to that described for the related M. mungaich (Figure 4 in Waldock 1995), but it is also very similar to the embolus of the more distantly related M. anomalus (Karsch 1878) from eastern Australia (Prószyński 1984, Żabka 1987, Otto & Hill 2012c, 2012e).

Female features (Figures 31-33). The females of M. sarahae, like those of other Maratu s, are relatively nondescript with cryptic colouration and subtle features.

Relative to the spermatheca, the windows (or fossae) of M. sarahae are relatively smaller than are those of M. mungaich . This is expressed in the ratio [b/c] (Figure 33:1) which is about 0.5 in M. sarahae, and 0.8- 0.9 in M. mungaich . The width of both windows relative to the epigynum [d/e] is about 0.6-0.7 in M. sarahae, and 0.8-0.9 in M. mungaich . The relative width of the septum [a/b] varies greatly, from about 0.4-0.7 in our examples of M. sarahae, to about 0.3-0.4 in M. mungaich . These differences in proportion may relate to differences in overall body size of the two species, or of the respective specimens.

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Male courtship display (Figures 34-35). In general, Maratus sarahae appeared to move its legs III, and flex these legs at the tibio-metatarsal joint, frequently during display, whereas M. mungaich appeared to rely more on side-stepping with legs III extended and held in a relatively static position. Male M. sarahae may also side-step in front of a female, but appeared to do this much less than did male M. mungaich . Videos depicting the display of M. sarahae (Otto 2012) and M. mungaich (Otto 2013) have been posted recently and provide a good introduction to the temporal sequence of these movements. Only the 'fan dance' of the male is depicted here. Like M. mungaich, males have many other signals in their courtship repertoire, including single leg waving at a distance, and semaphore movements of legs III with the fan lowered as the female is approached.

Habitat. Maratus sarahae has only been found on or near the ground in the eastern part of Stirling Range National Park in southwestern Western Australia (Figures 12:2, 15, 36).

Size of Maratus sarahae . Relative size is only useful within limits. In addition to intraspecific genetic variation, this may vary from year to year, or from place to place, solely as the result of environmental conditions including relative abundance of prey. Overall measurements of body length may not be reliable, due to changes in the relative position of prosoma and opisthosoma, as well as shrinkage, of preserved specimens. For spiders like Maratus, with a large and flexible pedicel related to the great extent to which these spiders can rotate the opisthosoma, 'body length' is thus an even less precise measurement. Nonetheless, the Maratus sarahae adults that have been measured are among the largest known Maratus (Otto & Hill 2011b, Waldock 2013), considerably larger than the related M. mungaich (Table 3, Figure 37). Waldock's M. sarahae types were much larger than any that we have observed (male length of 7.4 mm compared with our average of only 5.6 mm), but her drawing of the male (Waldock 2013, Fig. 3) depicts a length of only ~4.5mm.