The American Goblin Spiders of the New Genus Escaphiella (Araneae, Oonopidae)

Abstract

A new genus, Escaphiella, is established for a group of 36 oonopid species found from the United States south to Chile and Argentina. The previously known species had been placed in Scaphiella Simon, and Escaphiella is hypothesized to be the sister group of that genus. Members of the two groups share a laterally extended ventral abdominal scutum and a distinctive female genitalic conformation, but differ in cheliceral shape and setation, female palpal tarsal shape, male and female palpal tarsal setation, embolus form, and posterior respiratory structure. At least seven species of Escaphiella are characterized by the highly unusual occurrence of asymmetry between the right and left male pedipalps. In at least eight species, the right and left posterior median spinnerets are fused into a single median projection, or even lost entirely. Nine specific names are transferred from Scaphiella: S. hespera Chamberlin (chosen as the type species), S. litoris Chamberlin, S. juvenilis (Gertsch and Davis), S. iguala Gertsch and Davis, S. schmidti Reimoser, S. gertschi Chickering, S. itys Simon, S. scutata Chickering, and S. argentina Birabén. Two of those names are newly synonymized: E. juvenilis with E. hespera, and E. scutata with E. itys. The female of E. hespera is described for the first time, and 29 new species are described: E. nye from California

Evolution of genital asymmetry, exaggerated eye stalks, and extreme palpal elongation in Panjange spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae)

“…The characters supporting the monophyly of Panjange do not appear particularly convincing: (1) the reduction of the uncus has occurred repeatedly within Pholcus (Huber 2011); and (2) Spider genital asymmetry is apparently exceedingly rare, and to our knowledge has been documented in only nine of currently 3959 extant spider genera (genus count from World Spider Catalog 2015). Most cases are in Pholcidae (independent origins in Mesabolivar González-Sponga, 1998, Metagonia Simon, 1893, andPanjange;Huber 1997bHuber , 2004Huber , 2006herein), and Oonopidae (presumably independent origins in Lionneta Benoit, 1979, Escaphiella Platnick & Dupérré, 2009, Aschnaoonops Makhan & Ezzatpanah, 2011, and Paradysderina Platnick & Dupérré, 2011Burger 2010;Platnick & Dupérré 2009, 2011Platnick et al 2013). Further cases have been reported in Theridiidae (Asygyna Agnarsson, 2006;Agnarsson 2006) and Oxyopidae (Oxyopes Latreille, 1804;Brady 1964Brady , 1975).…”

On a new species of the genus Simlops (Araneae, Oonopidae) from Guyana, with notes on the bodanus group of species

“…Simlops shares with other Neotropical genera grouped in the Scaphiella complex (sensu Platnick & Dupérré 2009, 2010a,b, 2011) characteristic sexual dimorphism, in which the males have fully sclerotized abdomens, with a large dorsal scutum, while the females are less sclerotized, generally without the dorsal abdominal scutum. The monophyly of Simlops was based on the tripartite distal end of the male endites ( Fig.…”

Australian Goblin Spiders of the GenusIschnothyreus(Araneae, Oonopidae)

“…Although thought to be of greatest diversity in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Jocqué and Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2007), they are also known to persist in subterranean habitats (Harvey and Edward, 2007), arid regions (Fannes and Jocqué, 2008;Baehr et al, 2013), and high altitudes such as the Himalayan mountains (Baehr and Ubick, 2010). What makes this group so intriguing is the extremely small distribution ranges that many species exhibit, particularly from genera such as Cavisternum Baehr et al , Birabenella Grismado (Grismado, 2010), Opopaea Simon (Saaristo and Marusik, 2008;Baehr et al, 2013), Escaphiella Platnick and Dupérré (Platnick and Dupérré, 2009), Orchestina Simon (Saaristo, 2001;Saaristo and Harten, 2006), and Ischnothyreus Simon (KranzBaltensperger, 2011(KranzBaltensperger, , 2012. Many species are known only from a single locality , despite extensive survey work, and many are short-range endemics as defined by Harvey (2002) and Harvey et al (2011).…”

“…In some cases, the male has clear modifications on the distal portion of the endites and the base of the cheliceral fang. A prominent basal process on the fang is quite rare in other oonopid genera and has only been formally recorded in Escaphiella hespera (Chamberlin) and E. litoris (Chamberlin) (Platnick and Dupérré, 2009). However, there is some indication that prominent basal processes on the fang and distinct modifications of the distal portion of the endites exist in other genera (e.g., Platnick et al, 2011).…”