Salticidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from the Oriental, Australian and Pacific Regions, XV. New Species of Astieae from Australia
Author
Żabka, Marek
text
Records of the Australian Museum
2002
54
257
268
journal article
2201-4349
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
Figure 2
. Distributions of
Arasia mullion
•,
Helpis abnormis
,
Helpis kenilworthi
·, and
Helpis risdonica
.
, 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
Figure 3
. Male
Helpis abnormis
n.sp.
: A,B, palpal organ (scale = 0.41 mm); C, leg I (scale = 1.40 mm); D, cheliceral dentition; E, cephalothorax (scale = 0.70 mm).
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).