Soesilarishius Makhan, 2007

Ruiz, Gustavo Rodrigo Sanches, 2011, Systematics of the genus Soesilarishius (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae), Zootaxa 3022 (1), pp. 22-38 : 23

Soesilarishius Makhan, 2007

Soesilarishius Makhan, 2007: 2 (Type species: S. amrishi Makhan, 2007 — holotype not examined).

Diagnosis. Species included in this genus are small South American ground dwelling euophryines easily distinguishable from other lineages of this subfamily from the Neotropics by having reduced spiraled emboli. The morphology of these emboli, as described below, seems to be not so constrained when compared to the typical spiraled embolus present in almost all euophryine genera. The typical euophryine spiraled embolus has also been lost in Anasaitis Bryant , another group of ground dwellers typically found in the Caribbean Islands. However, DNA data place Anasaitis and Soesilarishius in very distant clades (J. Zhang, pers. comm.), which suggests the independence of these two events. Additionally, most Anasaitis species have iridescent scales on the body and ventral tibial bumps on the male palp (J. Zhang, pers. comm.), contrasting to the brownish-whitish known species of Soesilarishius .

Monophyly. Similarly to the type species, the species mentioned herein have the typical euophryine loop in the sperm duct but the typical coiled embolus is reduced (the long embolus of S. crispiventer sp. nov. coils to the opposite side and is probably derived from a short embolus). In this paper, this condition, observed in all the species, is interpreted as homologous and they are all described under Soesilarishius . Phylogenetic studies using molecular data could help us clarify whether the genus represents a natural group or if it only gathers similar, but unrelated, euophryines with reduced emboli.

Redescription. Very small to small sized jumping spiders (1.5–4.0 mm), ground dwellers, generally dark in body color, with pairs of spots or transverse stripes with white scales on the abdomen of both sexes, more conspicuous in males; chelicera with one retromarginal and two promarginal teeth in both sexes; male palp lacking the typical euophryine spiraled embolus, which is generally short and positioned at the distal end of tegulum; generally with legs 4312 in females and 4312 or 4132 in males, claw tufts poorly developed and some species with long ventral spines on front legs of both sexes; epigyne generally only with primary spermathecae, from which fertilization ducts arise (some species may have an additional pair of secondary spermathecae with no connecting fertilization ducts), scent glands (sensu Berry & Prószyṅski 2001) on the beginning of the copulation ducts and pores of nutritive glands on the inner wall of primary spermathecae.