Mistaria Lehtinen, 1967

Kioko, Grace M., Jaeger, Peter, Kioko, Esther N., Ji, Li-Qiang & Li, Shuqiang, 2019, On the species of the genus Mistaria Lehtinen, 1967 studied by Roewer (1955) from Africa (Araneae, Agelenidae), African Invertebrates 60 (1), pp. 109-132 : 109

Mistaria Lehtinen, 1967

Mistaria leucopyga (Pavesi, 1883) (Type species).

Agelena leucopyga Pavesi, 1883: 41-42 (♀). No information on type locality. Not examined.

Diagnosis.

Males of the genus Mistaria can be separated from those of Agelena by the presence of a large translucent fulcrum in the former species (Fig. 1B) which is absent in Agelena species; a spine-like embolus and thumb-like conductor in Mistaria (Fig. 1B) compared to a short, thick and grooved conductor in Agelena species (see fig. 5 in Zhang et al. 2005). Females can be separated by the absence of spermathecal apophysis in Mistaria (Fig. 2A) and absence of epigynal teeth in the females of Agelena (see fig. 3 in Zhang et al. 2005). Mistaria shares similarities with three other genera from the subfamily Ageleninae i.e Agelescape Levy, 1996, Hololena Chamberlin & Gertsch, 1929 and Rualena Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942. The shared characters include the presence of a fulcrum in the palp of males and epigine teeth in the females ( Lehtinen 1967; Maya-Morales and Jiménez 2016). Males of Mistaria can be distinguished from those of Agelescape by the absence of a tegular apophysis between the conductor and the median apophysis and two patella apophyses present in Mistaria (see fig. 1 in Guseinov et al. 2005; Fig. 1B, C); from the males of Hololena by the presence of a patella apophysis which is absent in the latter (Fig. 1C) and from the males of Rualena by the absence of conductor projections in the former genus (see fig. 12 in Maya-Morales and Jiménez 2016). Females of Mistaria can be separated from those of Agelescape by the absence of a scape found in the latter genus (see fig. 13 in Guseinov et al. 2005); from those of Hololena by the more posterior position in the epigynal teeth in the latter genus (see fig. 8 in Chamberlin and Ivie 1942) and from those of Rualena by the absence of copulatory openings and hyaline spurs in the former genus (see fig. 40 in Maya-Morales and Jiménez 2016).

Description.

See Kioko et al. 2018: 112

Type species.

Mistaria leucopyga (Pavesi, 1883) from Ethiopia.

Note.

The type species was not examined. The author of the type species Pavesi (1883) did not specify the exact locality of the species, hence descriptions were based on the work of Santos and van Harten (2007) which was the most recent paper and in which the authors examined the lectotype from Ethiopia: Mahal-Uonz, April 1887, Let-Marefià, July 1880 or Guiagaguè, 1887.