Andromma elephantactes, Bosselaers & Jocqué, 2022

Bosselaers, Jan & Jocqué, Rudy, 2022, Studies in the Liocranidae (Araneae): revision of Andromma Simon, 1893, European Journal of Taxonomy 850, pp. 1-78 : 44-46

Andromma elephantactes sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:98B9B440-9A2B-46F8-BF6C-2BED3A725DAA

Figs 23 , 39

Diagnosis

The female of Andromma elephantactes sp. nov. is characterized by the shape of the epigyne and the course of the copulatory ducts ending in small oval spermathecae.

Etymology

The species name is a noun in apposition composed by the Greek nouns ‘ἐλέφας’, meaning ‘ivory’, and ‘ἀκτή’, meaning ‘coast’, evidently referring to the country of the type locality.

Type material

Holotype

IVORY COAST • ♀; Appouesso, W of village; 6°36′30″ N, 3°26′50″ W; 20 Nov. 1994; Jocqué R. leg.; cocoa plantation; BE_RMCA_ARA.Ara 201034 .

Paratype

IVORY COAST • 1 ♀; Appouesso , Forêt Classée de la Bossematié; 6°36′53″ N, 3°27’08″ W; 7 May 1995; R. Jocqué and K. Tanoh leg.; pitfall 3A; BE_RMCA_ARA.Ara 204230 .

Other material

IVORY COAST • 2 ♀♀; Abidjan, Yopougon , CNRS area; 5°19′43.2″ N, 4°07’54.6″ W; 27 Feb. 2002; sifting leaf litter; CJB 4008 .

Description

Female (holotype, Fig. 23 )

MEASUREMENTS. Total length 4.97. Carapace length 2.13, width 1.92, height 0.64.

COLOUR ( Fig. 23A–B ). Carapace orange, gradually paler towards posterior margin; with dark area around AME, reddish fovea, without setae; chelicerae orange; endites yellowish orange, darker along lateral margin, paler along median margin; labium orange, paler in distal half; sternum orange with brownish precoxal triangles; legs brownish orange, coxae and trochanters yellow; abdomen including spinnerets cream; dorsum suffused with greyish brown, with faint pale stripe in anterior half.

PROSOMA. Fovea pronounced, length 0.5, anterior end 0.82 from PME. MOQ length 0.26, anterior width 0.33, posterior width 0.34, AER straight from above, width 0.59, PER procurved from above, width 0.72. All eyes circular; AME 0.15, ALE 0.08, PLE 0.07, PME 0.06; AME–AME: 0.07, AME–ALE: 0.05, ALE–PLE: touching, PME–PME: 0.21. Clypeus vertical, 0.16, with four long setae. Chelicerae with dorsal and ventral longitudinal groups of long setae; anterior margin with five teeth, three in a row, the most proximal the smallest and two tiny ones somewhat in a row slightly more inward. Chilum poorly developed, two sclerites, each 0.05 high, 0.16 wide. Sternum 1.28 long, as wide.

LEG SPINATION. All femora with one dorsal spine; Fe I with small pl spine; remainder of spines tiny.

LEG I MEASUREMENTS. Fe: 2.06, P: 0.78, T: 1.78, Mt: 1.63, t: 1.07; total: 7.32.

LEG FORMULA. 4123.

PALP. Female palpal tarsus with dense scopula.

EPIGYNE ( Fig. 23C–F ). Roughly rectangular area, wider than long, with copulatory openings with broad, dark, posterior margins; dark anterior bend of copulation duct centrally visible in transparency. First stretch of copulatory ducts narrow with a broad cul-de-sac appendage, running towards the centre, then widening and running forward, followed by a backward running stretch with internal spikes, ending in poorly delimited, small, oval spermathecae; fertilisation ducts thin, tubular, oriented posteriorly. Sickleshaped sclerites directed outward.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution

Known from the two localities in eastern Ivory Coast ( Fig. 39 ).

Figures

Fig. 23. Andromma elephantactes sp. nov., ♀, holotype (BE_RMCA_ARA.Ara 201034). A. Habitus, dorsal view. B. Same, ventral view. C–D. Epigyne, ventral view. E–F. Same cleared, dorsal view. Scale bars: A–B =2 mm; C–D=0.2 mm; E–F =0.1 mm.

Fig. 39. Distribution map of species of Andromma Simon, 1893. A. albinovani sp. nov. (green), A. delphiurumsp. nov. (yellow), A. elephantactes sp. nov. (red), A. helix sp. nov. (black) and A. prosopion sp. nov. (white).