Anelosimus sulawesi Agnarsson

Agnarsson, Ingi & Zhang, Jun-Xia, 2006, New species of Anelosimus (Araneae: Theridiidae) from Africa and Southeast Asia, with notes on sociality and color polymorphism, Zootaxa 1147, pp. 1-34 : 19-20

Anelosimus sulawesi Agnarsson n. sp.

( Figures 10D–F )

Types

Male holotype from Sulawesi , Dumoga Bone National Park, 1984, A. Russel–Smith, no. 5/5, canopy fogging, lowland forest, plot C, deposited in MCZ.

Additional material examined

1 Ψ: same locality data as holotype

Etymology

The species epithet is a noun in apposition after the type collection country.

Diagnosis

Anelosimus sulawesi n. sp. males differ from all other Anelosimus by the extremely elongate embolus, completely covering other sclerites in ventral view ( Fig. 10D ). Females differ from all other Anelosimus by the unusual trajectory of the copulatory ducts ( Fig. 10E ) and the elongate spermathecae with fertilization ducts arising from the dorsobasal margin ( Fig. 10F ).

Description

Male (holotype): Total length 2.00. Prosoma 1.00 long, 0.75 wide, brown. Sternum 0.70 long, 0.55 wide, brown. Opisthosoma 1.10 long, 0.80 wide. Pattern rather faint, but appears to be fairly typical for Anelosimus : dark notched dorsal folium, edged by white, albeit centrally the white ‘edges’ touch. Eyes subequal in size about 0.08 in diameter. Clypeus height about 1.5 times AME diameter. Leg I femur 1.35, patella 0.45, tibia 1.30, metatarsus 0.95, tarsus 0.50. Femur I about 4 times longer than wide. Leg formula 1243. Leg pale yellowish, femur I distinctly darkened, except at base. 3–5 small trichobothria dorsally on all tibia, 3–4 on tibia I–III, 5 on IV. 2 prolateral and 1 retrolateral trichobothria on palpal tibia. Stridulatory pick row on opisthosoma, under light microscopy, appears nearly straight, consisting of less than 10 modified setal bases. Epiandrous gland spigots in two clearly separate groups, number of fusules difficult to estimate under light microscopy.

Palpal organ as in Figure 10D .

Female (data as holotype): Total length 2.05. Prosoma 0.95 long, 0.75 wide, brown. Sternum 0.70 long, 0.55 wide, brown. Opisthosoma 1.25 long, 0.95 wide. Pattern very faint, but appears as in male. Eyes subequal in size about 0.08 in diameter. Clypeus height about 1.7 times AME diameter. Leg I femur 1.30, patella 0.45, tibia 1.20, metatarsus 0.95, tarsus 0.45. Femur I about 5 times longer than wide. Leg formula 1423. Leg pale yellowish, femur I distinctly darkened, except at base. 3–6 small trichobothria dorsally on all tibia, 3–4 on tibia I–III, 4–6 on tibia IV. 3 dorsal trichobothria on palpal tibia.

Epigynum as in Figures 10E–F .

Distribution

Only known from the type locality

Natural history

Unknown; the specimens were collected by canopy fogging.

Phylogenetics

Anelosimus sulawesi n. sp. has not been placed phylogenetically, but its morphology clearly indicates it belongs to the ‘filiform embolus’ clade ( Fig. 1 ).

Taxonomic note

The matching of sexes is based primarily on the two specimens having been collected together. While both are clearly congeners, the match between the genitalia seems poor. The extremely long male embolus is not matched by elongate copulatory ducts in the female. For that reason the matching is only tentative and therefore the female is not designated as a paratype, as is done in the other species.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Summary cladogram of Anelosimus species based on Agnarsson (2005, 2006). The approximate placement of the ‘ agnar group’ (A. agnar n. sp. and A. linda n. sp.), indicated with an arrow, is based on preliminary molecular data (Agnarsson unpublished). Alternatively the agnar group may belong to the filiform embolus clade. In Agnarsson (2005, 2006) A. sp. 2 Tanzania = A. biglebowski n. sp, A. sp. 3 Tanzania = A. dude n. sp., A. sp. 4 Singapore = A. kohi Yoshida, 1993, and A. sp. 5 South Africa = A. nelsoni n. sp. Preliminary morphological evidence such as filiform embolus, tegular ridge, and voluminous spermathecae (see Agnarsson 2006 for details) further indicate the placement of A. monskenyensis n. sp., A. sulawesi n. sp., A. chonganicus Zhu, 1998, A. crassipes (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906), A. dubius (Tullgren, 1910), A. exiguus Yoshida, 1986, A. iwawakiensis Yoshida, 1986, and A. taiwanicus Yoshida, 1986 in the ‘ filiform embolus clade’.

FIGURES 10 A – F. A – C, A. monskenyensis n. sp. A, pedipalpus, ventral (C conductor, E embolus, MA median apophysis, ST subtegulum, T tegulum, TTA theridiid tegular apophysis). B, epigynum ventral; C, epigynum cleared, dorsal (FD fertilization ducts, S spermathecae). D – F, A. sulawesi n. sp. D, pedipalpus, ventral; E, epigynum ventral; F, epigynum cleared, dorsal (CD copulatory duct). Scale bars (upper for pedipalpi, lower for epigyna): 100 m.