Opopaea deserticola Simon, 1892

Fig. 5A–F

Opopaea deserticola Simon, 1892: p.560, pl. 42, fig. 5, female and male syntypes from “Insula Sancti Vincentii” = Saint Vincent Island; not examined.

See the World Spider Catalog (2023) for the complete taxonomic list.

Materials examined. Aogashima Is.: 5 females, Aogashima Village (32° 26’ 51.0756”N, 139° 45’ 35.6718”E), Tokyo, Japan, 12-VII-2019, K. Endo leg . Okinawa Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 1 female 1 male, Besides Naha Port Facility, Kakinohana Town (26°12’19.8”N, 127°40’04.0”E), Naha City, 26-II-2022, Y. Suzuki leg. ; 1 male (NSMTAr 21912), Ōnoyama Town (26°12’11.4”N, 127°40’35.7”E), Naha City, 7-III-2021, Y. Suzuki leg. ; 1 female (NSMTAr 21914), Ōgusuku (26°17’09.5”N, 127°48’13.0”E), Kita-nakagusuku Village, Nakagusuku District, 8-III-2020, Y. Suzuki leg. Aka Is. (Okinawa Pref.) : 1 male 1 female, grassland at forest side (26°11’54.5”N, 127°16’55.7”E), Aka, Zamami Village, Shimajiri District, 16-III-2022, Y. Suzuki leg. Kita-daito Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 1 female, Kita-daito Village, Shimairi District, Okinawa Pref., 18-VI-2005, A. Tanikawa leg. Kume Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 1 male 2 females, Aka (26°21’48.8”N, 126°47’51.1”E), Kumejima Town, Shimajiri District, 2-XII-2021, Y. Suzuki leg. Miyako Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 2 males 4 females, Ueno-nobaru (24°46’05.9”N, 125°19’23.2”E), Miyakojima City, Japan, 17-XI-2021, Y. Suzuki leg. Kuroshima Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 2 females, grassland at coastal area (24°13’57.7”N, 123°59’50.4”E), Taketomi Town, Yaeyama District, 2-XI-2021, Y. Suzuki leg. ; 1 male 1 female, grassland alongside bushes at coastal area (24°14’26.2”N, 123°59’32.7”E), Taketomi Town, Yaeyama District, 2-XI-2021, Y. Suzuki leg. Iriomote Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 1 female, Funaura, Uehara, Taketomi Town, Yaeyama District, 31-III-1989, A. Tanikawa leg. Yonaguni Is. (Okinawa Pref.): 4 females (one female: NSMT-Ar 21913), Yonaguni (24°27’00.9”N, 122°56’07.5”E), Yonaguni Town, Yaeyama District, Okinawa Pref., 15-X-2021, Y. Suzuki leg.

Diagnosis. This species resembles O. concolor (Blackwall, 1859) but can easily distinguished by the position of a dark knob marking on epigastric region: very close to epigastric furrow in O. deserticola while far away from the furrow in O. concolor (Brescovit et al. 2019) .

Description. See Saaristo (2001) and Ono (2011) for detailed description.

Distribution: Southeast Asia. Introduced to USA to Panama, Caribbean, Venezuela, Brazil, Canary Is., Middle East, Japan (the Nansei Islands), Pacific Is. Also see Fig. 11 and Table 2 for details of distribution in the Nansei Islands.

Habitat. In Japan, this species was collected from litter layers of various environments, including artificial parks in urban area, grasslands and seashores.