Euophrys gracilis, Wesołowska & Azarkina & Russell-Smith, 2014

Wesołowska, Wanda, Azarkina, Galina N. & Russell-Smith, Anthony, 2014, Euophryine jumping spiders of the Afrotropical Region-new taxa and a checklist (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae), Zootaxa 3789 (1), pp. 1-72 : 18

Euophrys gracilis sp. nov.

Figs 47–54

Holotype: male, LESOTHO, Ha Liphapang village , 30°28'S: 28°00'E, 1700 m a.s.l., leaf litter, poplar forest near stream, 15 November 2003, leg. C. Haddad ( NCA 2013 /3412).

Paratypes: together with holotype, 1 female; LESOTHO, near Ha Frans village , 30°33'S: 28°01'E, 1850 m a.s.l., leaf litter, poplar forest on hillside, 1 female, 16 November 2003, leg. C. Haddad ( NCA 2013 /2313) ; SOUTH AFRICA, KwaZulu-Natal Province, Pietermaritzburg, 29°37′S: 30°23′E, Town Bush , 8 males, 3 females, 18 April 1976, leg. A. Russell-Smith ( NHM) .

Diagnosis. The species is related to E. limpopo described below. The male may be distinguished by the clearly longer embolus with a smaller basal coil. The female has an epigyne similar to that in E. falciger but differs in the position and shape of the epigynal depressions (near the posterior edge of epigyne and oval versus anteriorly and round in E. falciger ) and in the shorter seminal ducts.

Etymology. The specific name is Latin, meaning slender.

Description. Measurements (male/female). Cephalothorax: length 1.9/1.8–2.0, width 1.4/1.4–1.5, height 0.7/ 0.6–0.7. Abdomen: length 2.1/2.1–2.6, width 1.5/1.6–2.1. Eye field: length 0.8/0.8, anterior width 1.2/1.2, posterior width 1.1/1.1.

Male. General appearance as in Fig. 47 . Carapace oval, brown with darker eye field, black around eyes, covered with thin brown and grey hairs, some longer brown bristles near eyes. Clypeus low, dark. Sternum and mouth parts brownish, only endites with paler inner margins. Abdomen oval, brownish grey with whitish band along sides and anterior margin and wide light longitudinal streak with thin dark line medially ( Fig. 47 ). Venter dark grey with four light lines. Dorsum of abdomen clothed in grey and brown hairs. Spinnerets grey. Legs brown, first pair darker, especially femora. Leg hairs and spines brown. Pedipalp dark, its structure as in Figs 48–50 , tibial apophysis wider than in majority of congeners ( Fig. 50 ), process on tibia ventrally.

Female. Similar to male, slightly darker coloured. Eye field shiny. Abdomen more rounded, without median streak, mottled, with pattern comprised of poorly contrasting mosaic of dark and lighter patches (bleached dorsally in one specimen). Epigyne with two large oval depressions (their edges vague) ( Figs 51, 53 ). Seminal ducts short, with knot in front of the inlets to the spermathecae ( Figs 52, 54 ).

Distribution. Known from south-eastern Lesotho and the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa.

Figures

FIGURES 47–54. Euophrys gracilis sp. nov. 47 male holotype, dorsal view; 48 palpal organ, ventral view; 49 palpal organ, ventrolateral view; 50 palpal organ, retrolateral view; 51, 53 epigyne; 52, 54 internal structure of epigyne.