Camafroneta, Frick & Scharff, 2018

Frick, Holger & Scharff, Nikolaj, 2018, Description of one new genus and four new species of mynoglenine spiders from Africa (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Mynogleninae), European Journal of Taxonomy 415, pp. 1-27 : 3-4

Camafroneta gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A9911BE3-8F58-4BBB-BC5C-7116B2ECA337

Type species

Camafroneta oku gen. et sp. nov. by monotypy and present designation.

Diagnosis

Typical mynoglenine spiders with faint subocular sulci below ALE. With unusual genitalia and three instead of one trichobothrium on metatarsus I, which is unique within Linyphiidae . See section below for a description of the only known species in this genus.

Etymology

The name Camafroneta is an arbitrary combination of the abbreviation ‘Cam’ for the country Cameroon and the existing genus name Afroneta Holm, 1968 . The gender of the name should be considered feminine. We follow the tradition within the subfamily Mynogleninae of including the name Afroneta in the new genus name.

Remarks

The phylogenetic analysis placed this species as sister to Laminafroneta Merrett, 2004 (see discussion of phylogeny under description of Camafroneta oku gen. et sp. nov.).

Merrett (2004) diagnosed the genus Laminafroneta by the males having an embolic membrane (conductor) that partly encircles the embolus ( Merrett 2004: fig. 86) and the females having a broad, triangular, partly sclerotised dorsal plate ( Merrett 2004: figs 87–88). The males of Camafroneta gen. nov. share the partly encircled shape of the embolic membrane, but this is also present in Afroneta tenuivulva Merrett, 2004 to a lesser extend and in most mynoglenines from New Zealand. The shape of the epigyne of Laminafroneta is very different from anything else known from mynoglenines, while that of Camafroneta gen. nov. resembles the one of Afroneta lobeliae Merrett, 2004 ( Merrett 2004: fig. 28) and many other mynoglenines, especially from New Zealand. Including Camafroneta gen. nov. in Laminafroneta is, therefore, not justified.

Establishing a monotypic genus is unfortunate, because the genus will not add any grouping information until new species will be assigned to the genus. However, African mynoglenines are not well known and we probably only know a fraction of the existing taxa, especially from western Africa, where Camafroneta gen. nov. was found.

The most unique character present in Camafroneta gen. nov. are three trichobothria on metatarsus I (this was the case in all examined specimens of Camafroneta oku gen. et sp. nov.). The position of the trichobothrium on metatarsus I is one of the standard characters used to identify linyphiid spiders (see, e.g., Roberts 1987: tables A–D) and is routinely checked. The presence of more than one trichobothrium on metatarsus I is not known for any other linyphiid and is, therefore, unique to Camafroneta gen. nov.

See more diagnostic details on the conformation of the male and female copulatory organs in the species diagnosis section below.