Amphiledorus ungoliantae, Pekár & Cardoso, 2005

Pekár, Stano & Cardoso, Pedro, 2005, Ant-eating spiders (Araneae: Zodariidae) of Portugal: additions to the current knowledge, Zootaxa 1009 (1), pp. 51-60 : 52-53

Amphiledorus ungoliantae sp. n.

( Figs 1–4 , 14 )

Type data. Holotype male: Beja district: Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana, Corte da Velha (UTM 29 SPB17 ), 20 December 2003, P. Cardoso leg.; paratype: 1f, same locality, 28 October 2003, P. Cardoso leg. Type material deposited in SMF.

Material used for comparison. Amphiledorus balnearius : Algeria, Altas Blideen , Chrea E., Pic Emir Abdelkader, 20 June 19879 May 1988, 1m+2f, R. Bosmans leg. (CRB) .

Diagnosis. This species is closely related to Amphiledorus balnearius Jocqué & Bosmans 2001 from which males are recognised by straight and broad tibial apophysis; females by shape of epigyne.

Description. Male: Total length 7.80 mm, prosoma 3.77 mm long, 2.57 mm wide. Cephalic part of prosoma tapering anteriorly. Colour: Prosoma dark brown with light brown stripe around fovea widening toward posterior part. Chelicerae brown. Sternum brown. Legs yellow but coxae greenish­brown. Opisthosoma dorsally brown with two larger anterior whitish spots, ventrally pale with few brown spots. Palp ( Figs 12 ): tibia with broad apophysis, sharp on retrolateral side, cymbium oval with four distal spines. Tegulum strongly developed. Embolus long, slightly curved in the middle. Median apophysis long terminally hook­shaped, conductor hooked, distal tegular apophysis with paired protuberances.

Female: Total length 8.71 mm, prosoma 4.03 mm long, 2.61 mm wide. Cephalic part of prosoma not tapering. Colour: Prosoma yellow­brown. Legs yellow but coxae and femora greenish­brown. All other colour as in male. Epigyne (Figs 34): wider than long, posterior plate divided centrally, with two triangular pouches, anterior margin of plate with paired sclerotised lips.

Distribution. Known only from the type locality in southern Alentejo ( Fig. 14 ).

Etymology. The specific name is a noun in apposition derived from the famous fictional spider, Ungoliant, described in the “Silmarillion” and later writings of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Amphiledorus ungoliantae sp. n. 1 male palp, ventral view. 2 male palp, retrolateral view. 3 epigyne, ventral view. 4 epigyne, dorsal view. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

FIGURES 13–20. Distribution of zodariid spiders in Portugal. 13 Amphiledorus adonis. 14, Amphiledorus ungoliantae. 15 Zodarion alacre. 16 Zodarion atlanticum. 17 Zodarion bosmansi. 18 Zodarion lusitanicum. 19 Zodarion merlijni. 20 Zodarion styliferum. 21 Zodarion styliferum f. extraneum. Current (full symbols) and previous (empty symbols) records.

FIGURES 9–12. Zodarion bosmansi sp. n. 9 male palp, ventral view. 10 male palp, retrolateral view. 11 epigyne, ventral view. 12 vulva, dorsal view. Scale bars = 0.25 mm.