Loxosceles vicentei Taucare-Ríos, Brescovit & Villablanca, 2022

Magalhaes, Ivan L. F., Iuri, Hernán A., Brescovit, Antonio D. & Pizarro-Araya, Jaime, 2024, The tiniest violin: the male of Loxosceles vallenar (Araneae, Sicariidae), ZooKeys 1206, pp. 327-346 : 327-346

Loxosceles vicentei Taucare-Ríos, Brescovit & Villablanca, 2022

Fig. 9

Loxosceles vicentei Taucare-Ríos, Brescovit & Villablanca, 2022: 158, figs 1 A – B, 2 A – D, 4 A – B.

Holotype (not examined).

Chile • 1 ♂; Coquimbo, Elqui Prov., Vicuña, Fondo El Calvario , near Juntas del Toro , 29 ° 58 ' 30.97 " S, 70 ° 6 ' 11.86 " W, 2050 m. a. s. l., 14 Oct. 2021, V Villablanca Miranda, J Villablanca Rivera & A Taucare-Ríos leg.; Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago, Chile, MNNC 8371 .

New record.

Chile • 1 ♂; Atacama, Prov. Huasco, Boquerón Chañar; Algarrobal ; 992 m. a. s. l., (28.3708 ° S, 70.4128 ° W); 24–25 Nov. 2022; J Pizarro-Araya, FM Alfaro, JE Barriga, AA Ojanguren-Affilastro, HA Iuri & JE Calderón leg.; IFM- 2579 ; MACN - Ar 44128 .

Remarks.

The new record is about 183 km north of the type locality of L. vicentei , but within the distribution of this species presented by Taucare-Ríos et al. (2022). The embolic keel we observed in our specimens (Fig. 9 , arrows) was not mentioned in the original description of the species but can nonetheless be seen in their figures ( Taucare-Ríos et al. 2022, fig. 2 A). The holotype has a slightly longer embolus and a seemingly larger keel; a larger series of specimens must be examined to evaluate the significance of these morphological differences. The presence of an embolic keel, allied with the digitiform median receptacles of the female ( Taucare-Ríos et al. 2022, fig. 2 D), hints that L. vicentei belongs in the spadicea species group, rather than in the laeta species group. Taucare-Ríos et al. (2022) present a map with four records, but their list of material examined indicated only three localities; the fourth record had been included by mistake (A. Taucare-Ríos, in litt.), and thus, we omit it in our map.

Habitat.

See remarks under L. vallenar above.

Figures

Figure 9. Loxosceles vicentei Taucare-Ríos, Brescovit & Villablanca, 2022, male from Boquerón Chañar (MACN - Ar 44128), left bulb, prolateral, in light (A) and scanning electron microscopy (B). Arrows indicate embolic keel. Scale bars: 100 µm.