Poltys timmeh, Smith, 2006

Smith, H. M., 2006, A Revision of the Genus Poltys in Australasia (Araneae: Araneidae), Records of the Australian Museum 58, pp. 43-96 : 69

The P. frenchi species group

Morphologically, these species appear to be the link between the P. illepidus -group and the P. laciniosus -group. There are usually four prolateral cheliceral teeth (LsLs) in P. frenchi , but this is often reduced to three (LLs) in P. timmeh n.sp. Specimens of P. frenchi are variable in build. Heavier bodied females look rather like P. illepidus -group animals, especially when the abdomen is swollen with eggs, but lightly built specimens are much more slender, more like the P. laciniosus -group. There is also a similar range of variation in abdominal shapes as in the P. laciniosus -group. Males are extremely lightly built, even more so than P. laciniosus -group species. The genitalia also show some intermediate characters: like the P. illepidus -group, the male palp has a distinct TA, but the embolus arises retrobasally, as in P. laciniosus -group species ( Fig. 29); the PM is also well developed, although quite different in form to either group ( Fig. 125). In females, the spade-shaped epigyne is intermediate in shape and there appears to be a distinct, although short and narrow, copulatory duct that is formed similarly to that in the P. laciniosus -group ( Fig. 30). No modification of patellal macrosetae has been noted.

Only two species are currently recognized, P. frenchi , which occurs from Australia to the southern Indonesian islands and P. timmeh , from New Caledonia and nearby islands. A single examined female from the highlands of West Papua (RMNH), if not teratogenic, may also be in the P. frenchi -group but its rather unique epigyne is difficult to place at present.