Euprosthenops Pocock, 1897

Zonstein, Sergei & Marusik, Yuri M., 2021, The first Western Palearctic record of Euprosthenops Pocock (Araneae, Pisauridae), with description of a new species from Israel, ZooKeys 1065, pp. 13-27 : 13

Genus Euprosthenops Pocock, 1897

Type species.

Podophthalma bayonianna Brito Capello, 1867, by subsequent designation ( Simon 1898).

Diagnostic characters.

The genus and its characters were comprehensibly described by Blandin (1976) and later redescribed by Silva and Sierwald (2014). Among the used characters (for their full set see Silva and Sierwald 2014), two are principal in distinguishing males from those of the closely related genus Euprosthenopsis Blandin, 1974. First, in males of Euprosthenops the palpal tibia is armed with a flattened and extended chisel-shaped retrolateral tibial apophysis (Rta; see Fig. 2C, D ). Second, they possess a large lamellose distal tegular apophysis (Dt; Figs 2C , 4 , 5 ). On the contrary, males of Euprosthenopsis have a wide and concave retrolateral tibial apophysis as well as a short and rounded distal tegular apophysis (see Blandin 1974; Silva and Sierwald 2014).

Composition and distribution.

According to WSC (2021) with the present addition, Euprosthenops includes ten species and one subspecies: ♂♀ E. australis Simon, 1898 (Senegal, Nigeria, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa), ♂♀ E. bayaonianus (Brito Capello, 1867) (West, Central and East Africa), ♀ E. benoiti Blandin, 1976 (Rwanda), ♂♀ E. biguttatus Roewer, 1955 (Congo, Namibia), ♂♀ E. ellioti (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877) (India, Pakistan?), ♂ E. insperatus sp. nov. (Israel), ♀ E. pavesii Lessert, 1928 (Central and East Africa), ♂♀ E. proximus Lessert, 1916 (Central, East and South Africa), ♂♀ E. p. maximus Blandin, 1976 (Ivory Coast), ♀ E. schenkeli (Roewer, 1955) (East Africa), ♂ E. wuehlischi Roewer, 1955 (Namibia). The record of a single female specimen of E. ellioti in the Pakistani Punjab by Dyal (1935) is doubtful, as there are no illustrations provided for this material and it is possible that even the generic assignment is not correct.

Figures

Figure 2. Euprosthenops insperatus sp. nov., holotype male, structures of left (A, B) and right (C, D) palp A entire palp, retrolateral B palpal tibia and cymbium, dorsal C, D distal palpal tibia and basal embolus close up, retrolateral and ventral. Abbreviations: Co - conductor, Dt - distal tegular process, Ma -- median apophysis, Ta - retrolateral tibial apophysis. Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A, B); 0.2 mm (C, D).

Figure 4. Euprosthenops insperatus sp. nov., holotype male (A-D) and E. proximus Lessert, 1916, male (E-G), separated copulatory bulb A, E retrolateral B, F retrodorsal C ventral D, G frontal. Small teeth of embolus are indicated with arrows. Abbreviations: Co - conductor, Dt - distal tegular process, El - embolus loop, Em - embolus, Ma - median apophysis, Pp - prolateral projection, St - subtegulum, Tp - prolateral tegular pouch. Scale bars: 0.2 mm.

Figure 5. Euprosthenops insperatus sp. nov., holotype male (A, C), and males of E. australis Simon, 1898 (B) and E. proximus Lessert, 1916 (D); comparison of copulatory bulbs schematically depicted in the same position. The differences in their structure are indicated with arrows. Abbreviations: Co - conductor, Dt - distal tegular process, Em - embolus, Ma -- median apophysis, Pp - prolateral projection.