Arasia mullion, Żabka, 2002

Żabka, Marek, 2002, Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from the Oriental, Australian and Pacific Regions, XV. New Species of Astieae from Australia, Records of the Australian Museum 54, pp. 257-268 : 258-259

Arasia mullion n.sp.

Fig. 1

Type material. HOLOTYPE Australia: New South Wales: 3, Mullion State Forest , N of Orange, 33°11'S 145°08'E, under bark, 18 Oct 1999, M. Gray & G. Milledge, AMS KS59179 .

Diagnosis. Abdominal pattern more contrasting than in other species of the genus, palpal tibia with ventral apophysis.

Description

Male ( Fig. 1A). Cephalothorax pear-shaped, covered with rather numerous white adpressed hairs—especially on sides and with scattered brown bristles. Eye field contrasting orange, AME area dark-brown, other eyes surrounded with black. Thorax orange-brown anteriorly with radial darker markings and darkening towards lower margins. Abdomen dark-grey with light pattern made of guanine crystals. Hairs few, white—especially on sides, and brown. Spinnerets rather long, smudged light-brown. Clypeus narrow

, dark-

orange with some brown bristles. Chelicerae long, dark- brown with orange apices, and with 2 promarginal and 5 retromarginal teeth (Fig. 1D). Pedipalps yellow. Maxillae and labium smudged brown with yellow apices. Sternum only slightly narrower than wide, smudged orange. Venter blackish-grey. Femora I black-brown on sides, distally slightly lighter, dorsally and ventrally light-brown. Patellae I with dark sides, distally and dorsoventrally yellow, tibiae similar in colour, with 5–6 prolateral and 5 retrolateral

spines. Metatarsi I with 2 pairs of long spines, yellow proximally and distally, the rest brown. Tarsi I yellow. Other legs more delicate and generally lighter, with dark patches on sides of femora, patellae and tibiae. Legs I densely covered with brown hairs, especially on tibiae and metatarsi. Following legs less clothed, hairs lighter. Palpal organ (Fig. 1B,C) elongated, with ribbon-like, long embolus and distinctive ventral apophysis. Dimensions: CL 2.54, EFL 1.04, AEW 1.50, PEW 1.30, CW 2.18, AL 2.91.

Distribution ( Fig. 2). Known only from Mullion State Forest (NSW).

Remarks. Only three species of Arasia are known: A. mollicoma (Koch) , A. eucalypti Gardzińska and the present species, all of them are tree-trunk dwellers in open sclerophyll forests. Arasia aurea (Koch) listed by Wanless (1988) is excluded from Adoxotoma and transferred to the genus Sondra (see below).