Ghatippus Marathe & Maddison, 2024

Marathe, Kiran, Maddison, Wayne P. & Kunte, Krushnamegh, 2024, Ghatippus paschima, a new species and genus of plexippine jumping spider from the Western Ghats of India (Salticidae, Plexippini, Plexippina), ZooKeys 1191, pp. 89-103 : 89

Ghatippus Marathe & Maddison gen. nov.

Figs 2-5 , 6, 7 , 8-17 , 18-25 , 26-40

Type species.

Ghatippus paschima Marathe & Maddison, sp. nov.; by monotypy.

Etymology.

The generic name Ghatippus gen. nov. combines the word ‘Ghat’, representing the collecting locality-the Western Ghats Mountain range-with the distinctive suffix found in several plexippine genera. The generic name is assigned to the masculine gender.

Diagnosis.

The UCE phylogeny implies genetic diagnosability of Ghatippus gen. nov., but here we focus on the morphological distinctions. The membranous retrolateral edge of the embolus (Figs 2 , 18 ) and lack of distinct epigynal coupling pockets (Figs 4 , 20 ) differentiate Ghatippus gen. nov. from all members of clade 1 (Fig. 1 ) and other plexippines except Hyllus , Thyene Simon, 1885, and Vailimia Kammerer, 2006. Also, Ghatippus gen. nov. is the only plexippine reported to have a bifurcated male fang with nearly co-equal branch points (Figs 6 , 12 ).

From Hyllus , Ghatippus gen. nov. differs in carapace (higher, box-shaped, PLEs on tubercles in Ghatippus gen. nov. vs relatively lower, rounder, no tubercles in Hyllus ), RTA (simple, short vs serrated, wide), cymbium (laterally narrow with a narrow apex vs robust, laterally wide with a broader apex), and copulatory ducts (short vs long). From Thyene , Ghatippus gen. nov. differs in embolus length (medium in Ghatippus gen. nov. vs long and coiled in Thyene ), copulatory ducts (short vs long), and carapace (higher, box-shaped, PLEs on tubercles vs relatively lower, rounder, no tubercles). From Vailimia , Ghatippus gen. nov. differs in embolus length (medium in Ghatippus gen. nov. vs long in Vailimia ), RTA (simple, short vs curvy, long), and spermathecae (simple vs globular). Ghatippus gen. nov. also has an oval abdomen and open posture typical for salticids, unlike Vailimia 's pointed abdomen and unusual stance, holding the legs close to the body in a compact crouch.

Ghatippus gen. nov. is most likely to be confused with Pancorius because of the high, box-shaped carapace with PLEs on tubercles, but Pancorius lacks the membrane-bearing embolus and has distinct epigynal coupling pockets.

Figures

Figure 1. Maximum-likelihood tree, best tree of 10 replicates inferred using IQ-TREE, from concatenated dataset of 3060 ultraconserved element loci. Numbers at the nodes are percentage of 1000 bootstrap replicates recovering the clade. Ghatippus paschima sp. nov. is recovered distantly (see Clade 1) from morphologically similar Hyllus and Pancorius (see Clade 2).

Figures 2 - 5. Ghatippus paschima sp. nov. genitalia 2 male left palp, ventral view (holotype IBC-BP 817) 3 ditto, retrolateral view (holotype IBC-BP 817) 4 epigyne, ventral view (paratype IBC-BP 818) 5 vulva, dorsal view (paratype IBC-BP 818). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figures 6, 7. Ghatippus paschima sp. nov., dorsal view of left chelicerae 6 paratype male, IBP-BP 819 7 paratype female, IBC-BP 820 (arrow points to the true tip on the male chelicera bearing the venom duct). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figures 8 - 17. Ghatippus paschima sp. nov. 8 male (paratype IBC-BP 819) carapace, dorsal view 9 ditto, side view 10, 11 male endite, ventral and dorsal view respectively (paratype IBC-BP 819) 12 male right chelicera, dorsal view (paratype IBC-BP 819) 13 female left chelicera, dorsal view (paratype IBC-BP 820) 14 male left femur of leg I, prolateral view (paratype IBC-BP 819) 15 female left femur of leg I, prolateral view (paratype IBC-BP 820) 16 male left femur of leg I, retrolateral view (paratype IBC-BP 819) 17 female left femur of leg I, retrolateral view (paratype IBC-BP 820). Scale bars: 1.0 mm (6, 7); 0.1 mm (8 - 15).

Figures 18 - 25. Ghatippus paschima sp. nov. genitalia (top row) and alcohol preserved types habitus (bottom row) 18 male (holotype IBC-BP 817) left palp, ventral view 19 ditto, retrolateral view 20 epigyne, ventral view (paratype IBC-BP 818) 21 vulva, dorsal view (paratype IBC-BP 818) 22 male (holotype IBC-BP 817), dorsal view 23 ditto, ventral view 24 female (paratype IBC-BP 818), dorsal view 25 ditto, ventral view. Scale bars: 0.1 mm for genitalia; 1.0 mm for bodies.

Figures 26 - 40. Habitus of Ghatippus paschima sp. nov. 26 - 31 male (IBC-BP 828 / AS 19.4384) 32 - 34 male (IBC-BP 833 / AS 19.3805) 35 - 38 female, (IBC-BP 834 / AS 19.3814) 39, 40 (IBC-BP 835 / AS 19.3821). Scale bar: 1.0 mm.