Anelosimus hookeri Agnarsson, Kuntner & Jencik

Agnarsson, Ingi, Jencik, Brian B., Veve, Giselle M., Hanitriniaina, Sahondra, Agostini, Diego, Goh, Seok Ping, Pruitt, Jonathan & Kuntner, Matjaz, 2015, Systematics of the Madagascar Anelosimus spiders: remarkable local richness and endemism, and dual colonization from the Americas, ZooKeys 509, pp. 13-52 : 28-29

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Theridiidae

Anelosimus hookeri Agnarsson, Kuntner & Jencik sp. n. Fig. 8

Type material.

Holotype female from Ambohitantely Special Reserve (18.161°S, 47.302°E), 1500 m alt, Analamanga region, Ankazobe district, Madagascar, 28.iv.2008, montane forest, col. Agnarsson and Kuntner, in NMNH.

Other material.

Only known from holotype.

Etymology.

The species epithet is a noun in genitive case that honors the evolutionary biologist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who was among the first scientists to publish work announcing support for Darwin´s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Diagnosis.

Anelosimus hookeri differs from all other Anelosimus by the combination of pale coloring (Fig. 8 A–C), and a pendulum-like septum that is widest at its extremes (Fig. 8E). Anelosimus hookeri can be diagnosed from other Madagascan Anelosimus on the basis of the following unique mtDNA nucleotide substitutions at the following standard DNA barcode alignment positions: G (85), G (479). It can also be readily diagnosed from most other Anelosimus based the following partially shared nucleotide substitutions, and all other species by their unique combination: T (22, except Anelosimus tita and Anelosimus huxleyi ), G (100, except Anelosimus may , and some Anelosimus darwini ), A (256, except Anelosimus torfi and Anelosimus salut ), G (379, except Anelosimus wallacei ), G (466, except Anelosimus vondrona ), G (487, except Anelosimus ata ), G (514, except Anelosimus lamarcki and most Anelosimus vondrona ).

Description.

Female: Total length 4.76. Cephalothorax 2.17 long, 1.43 wide, 1.26 high, dark brown. Sternum 1.26 long, 0.99 wide, extending half way between coxae IV, brown. Abdomen 2.99 long, 2.05 wide, 2.17 high. White base with black/brown spots, red marks near spinnerets, dark brown around genitalia. Eyes subequal in size about 0.12 in diameter. Clypeus height about 2.1 times one AME diameter. Chelicerae with one large tooth, three denticles prolaterally. Leg I femur 1.76, patella 0.63, tibia 1.99, metatarsus 1.89, tarsus 0.88. Leg formula 1243, with leg 2 slightly longer than leg 1 and leg 3 slightly longer than leg 4. Leg light orange-brown, with alternating light and dark shaded bands, and very dark at metatarsus/tarsus junction and distal tip of tarsus. Numerous (4-5) small trichobothria dorsally on all tibia, 4 on tibia II, 5 on tibia I. Trichobothria on all metatarsi (2-3). Four dorsal trichobothria on female palpal tibia.

Variation: only known from holotype.

Distribution.

Only known from type locality.

Natural history.

Unknown, predicted to be subsocial.