Stiphropus qianlei Lin & Li, 2023

Li, Fengyuan, Lin, Yejie & Li, Shuqiang, 2023, Notes on two Stiphropus species from China (Araneae, Thomisidae), Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 105695-105695 : 105695

Stiphropus qianlei Lin & Li, 2023 sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Hao Yu, Qianle Lu ; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: A91C5F74-DF5B-507E-87FD-266101905E4F; Taxon : scientificName: Stiphropus qianlei; Location : country: China; stateProvince: Guizhou; county: Xiuwen ; locality: Liutong Town , Weijiayakou ; verbatimElevation: 1109 m; verbatimCoordinates: 27.09°N, 106.50°E; Identification: identifiedBy: Yejie Lin; dateIdentified: 2023; Event: year: 2022; month: 6; day: 5; habitat: ant nest; Record Level: institutionCode: IZCAS-Ar 44580 Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Hao Yu, Qianle Lu ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: A4F5873C-8D16-5E40-A9DE-635752986206; Taxon : scientificName: Stiphropus qianlei; Location : country: China; stateProvince: Guizhou; county: Xiuwen ; locality: Liutong Town , Weijiayakou ; verbatimElevation: 1109 m; verbatimCoordinates: 27.09°N, 106.50°E; Identification: identifiedBy: Yejie Lin; dateIdentified: 2023; Event: year: 2022; month: 6; day: 5; habitat: ant nest; Record Level: institutionCode: IZCAS-Ar 44581 Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Hao Yu, Qianle Lu ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 48F30C8A-7113-5C52-9CDF-1E915D45A80F; Taxon : scientificName: Stiphropus qianlei; Location : country: China; stateProvince: Guizhou; county: Xiuwen ; locality: Liutong Town , Weijiayakou ; verbatimElevation: 1109 m; verbatimCoordinates: 27.09°N, 106.50°E; Identification: identifiedBy: Yejie Lin; dateIdentified: 2023; Event: year: 2022; month: 7; day: 4; habitat: ant nest; Record Level: institutionCode: IZCAS-Ar 44582 Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Hao Yu, Qianle Lu ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 96767AD 9-BDD2-57D4-AF88-2F745D5D219C; Taxon : scientificName: Stiphropus qianlei; Location : country: China; stateProvince: Guizhou; county: Xiuwen ; locality: Liutong Town , Weijiayakou ; verbatimElevation: 1109 m; verbatimCoordinates: 27.09°N, 106.50°E; Identification: identifiedBy: Yejie Lin; dateIdentified: 2023; Event: year: 2022; month: 7; day: 4; habitat: ant nest; Record Level: institutionCode: IZCAS-Ar44583

Description

Male (holotype). Total length 2.71; carapace 1.29 long, 1.12 wide, opisthosoma 1.55 long, 1.16 wide. Eye sizes and interdistances: AME 0.06, ALE 0.11, PME 0.02, PLE 0.09, AME-AME 0.07, AME-ALE 0.17, PME-PME 0.17, PME-PLE 0.26, AME-PME 0.07, ALE-PLE 0.13. Chelicerae with seven promarginal spines. Endites 3 times longer than wide. Leg measurements: I 3.13 (0.86, 0.56, 0.92, 0.79), II 3.12 (0.84, 0.92, 0.54, 0.82), III 2.29 (0.68, 0.79, 0.34, 0.48), IV 2.38 (0.71, 0.81, 0.37, 0.49).

Colouration (Fig. 5 a). Carapace dark-brown, covered with long sparse brown setae, glaborous posteriorly. Endites and labium brown. Sternum yellowish-brown. Legs brown to dark-brown, covered with plumose setae, more obvious in metatarsi and tarsi. Opisthosoma brown, covered with scutum, with long, sparse brown setae. Spinnerets yellow.

Palp (Fig. 1 ). Patella almost as long as tibia. Tibia with 2 apophyses, ventral tibial apophysis blunt, little curved; dorsal tibial apophysis as long as ventral tibial apophysis, terminal sharp. Cymbium almost as long as wide. Cymbium covered with sparse plumose setae at dorso-prolateral half. Tutaculum with two sub-triangular projections in ventral view. Tegulum crescent-shaped. Embolus falciform, wrinkled and rounded distally in retrolateral view, widest at the middle, originating from 11:30 o’clock position and its tip ending at 3:00 o’clock position, opening dorsally at tip.

Female (IZCAS-Ar44581). Total length 4.57; carapace 1.80 long, 1.45 wide, opisthosoma 2.64 long, 2.49 wide. Eye sizes and interdistances: AME 0.07, ALE 0.13, PME 0.02, PLE 0.13, AME-AME 0.09, AME-ALE 0.21, PME-PME 0.23, PME-PLE 0.34, AME-PME 0.13, ALE-PLE 0.16. Chelicerae with seven promarginal spines. Endites 3 times longer than wide. Leg measurements: I 3.73 (0.99, 1.07, 0.60, 1.07), II 3.85 (1.05, 1.14, 0.60, 1.06), III 3.06 (0.92, 1.06, 0.42, 0.66), IV 3.33 (1.02, 1.11, 0.53, 0.67).

Colouration (Fig. 5 a). Similar to that of male, except paler and dorsal with two large muscle dots.

Epigyne (Fig. 2 ) raised near middle of the abdomen, with a transversal, sub-oval and wrinkled depression anteriorly, two creviced and arched copulatory openings located at sides of posterior margin of the wrinkled depression, touching each other. Copulatory ducts strongly sclerotised at parts next to ducts and almost as long as spermathecae. Spermathecae almost spherical, with irregularly distributed projections on the surface, spaced by less than 1 radius. Fertilisation ducts originated near mesal sides of spermathecae.

Diagnosis

The male is similar to S. ocellatus Thorell, 1887 by the curved and wide embolus and long, terminal sharp dorsal tibial apophysis (see Ono 1980, figs. 22-27). However, the new species can be distinguished from S. ocellatus by the embolus strongly curved as C-shaped and widest at the middle [vs. no significant change in the width of the embolus in S. ocellatus ( Ono 1980, figs. 22 and 25) and dorsal tibial apophysis pointed dorsally [vs. point anteriorly in S. ocellatus ( Ono 1980, figs, 23, 24, 26 and 27). For diagnosis of females, see Li et al. (2010).

Etymology

The species is named after one of the collectors.

Distribution

China (Guizhou) (Fig. 7 ).

Biology

All specimens were collected in two different nests of Aphaenogaster smythiesii (Forel, 1902). S. qianlei sp. n. can be classified as a myrmecophile or myrmecophage. The collectors did not search for S. qianlei sp. n. outside the ant nests, but evidence suggests that the discovery of S. qianlei sp. n. in ant nests is typical (Fig. 6).

Notes

The oval fan-shaped folds, the 90° folded copulatory duct and accessory gland point posteriorly show the females of S. falciformus in Li et al. (2010) are mismatched. Herein, we treated their female taxon as S. qianlei sp. n.

Compared material examined

Stiphropus falciformus 1♂, CHINA: Yunnan: Xishuangbanna, Mengla County, Menglun Town, Menglun Nature Reserve, Guo Zheng leg.

Figures

Figure 1. Stiphropus qianlei sp. n., holotype male. A Prolateral view; B Ventral view; C Retrolateral view. Abbreviations: DTA dorsal tibial apophysis; E embolus; Tu tutaculum; VTA ventral tibial apophysis.

Figure 2. Stiphropus qianlei sp. n., paratype female. A Epigyne, ventral view; B Vulva, dorsal view. Abbreviations: AG accessory gland; CD copulatory duct; CO copulatory opening; FD fertilisation duct; S spermatheca; Tu tutaculum.

Figure 7. Distribution records of Stiphropus species in Asia: 1 Stiphropus falciformus; 2 S. myrmecophilus; 3 S. qianlei sp. n.; 4 S. ocellatus; 5 S. soureni. Brown circles shows the holotypes collection located.