Myrmarachne lupata
Creators: name: Tripathi, Rishikesh
name: Jose, Athira
name: Nafin, Karunnappilli Shamsudheen
name: Babu, Nishi
name: Sudhikumar, Ambalaparambil Vasu
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Myrmarachne
Myrmarachne lupata

description: MYRMARACHNE LUPATA (L. KOCH, 1879)
Synemosyna lupata L. Koch, 1879: 1052; pl. 93, fig. 1 (D ♂).
Myrmarachne lupata Rainbow (1911): 283. Myrmarachne lupata Clyne (1977): 52; fig. 14.1 – 3.
Type material
Australia. QLD: 1♂ holotype (ZMH, 16505) Port Mackay (21 ° 15 0 S, 149 ° 15 0 E).
Diagnosis
This species is most similar to Myrmarachne acutidens Yamasaki & Edwards, 2013, and among Australian species to M. helensmithae sp. nov., M. macaulayi sp. nov., and M. smaragdina. Males can be differentiated by slightly bulbous chelicerae, plentiful dentition, position of tiny apophysis on the fang, and absence of tibial groove below RTA.
Description
Male: Measurements (N = 1): total body length 9.2 mm, carapace length 2.7 mm, carapace width 1.4 mm, chelicera length 3.8 mm, abdomen length 2.6 mm, PTB = 2.3. Colour: overall body colour brown to black; endites, labium, sternum, and palpal segments brown to dark brown; leg segments dark brown, except for Cx I, Mt II, Ta II, Tr IV, pale, Pt I and IV, ventrally pale, and Tr I and II, Ti II, pale with longitudinal dark-brown stripes on sides. Morphology: chelicerae long, protruding, dorsally covered with white hairs (Fig. 8C), anteriorly with six strong teeth, posteriorly with 11 teeth; fangs slightly sinuous, with ventral apophysis, curved tip (Fig. 8D); prosoma elongate (Fig. 8A), cephalic part of carapace convex, higher than thoracic part, separated from thoracic part by a deep constriction (Fig. 8B); Cx I – IV with a process on the inner margin; leg spines: Ti I with three pairs, Mt I and Ti II each with two pairs of ventral spines; abdomen spherical, with a shallow constriction, and with two dorsal scuta (Fig. 8A, B); palpal cymbium oval, with one apical spine; tegulum small and round; embolus coiled 1.5 times, sinusoid, pointing forwards (Fig. 8E); RTA tiny, hooked at the tip, pointing dorsally, flange developed (Fig. 8F).
Female: Not known.
Distribution
Known only from the type locality in QLD (Fig. 4E).
Remarks
The description given by Koch (1879) does not correspond closely to the drawings (for example, the position of the apophysis on the fang). Its black colour suggests that it imitates black Polyrhachis ants. Ecological and behavioural studies incorrectly used this name for species that are most likely M. macleayana (Jackson, 1982, 1986). Clyne (1977) presents three suspicious drawings of a male, with fig. 14.1 lacking the apophysis on the basal segment of chelicerae, whereas in fig. 14.2 it is present. In fig. 14.3 there is an apophysis on the fang but it is situated far away from its base (similar to an incorrect drawing in Koch, 1879), and the distal tip is strangely curved.
description: Published as part of Tripathi, Rishikesh, Jose, Athira, Nafin, Karunnappilli Shamsudheen, Babu, Nishi & Sudhikumar, Ambalaparambil Vasu, 2017, Revision of eastern Australian ant-mimicking spiders of the genus Myrmarachne (Araneae, Salticidae) reveals a complex of species and forms, pp. 642-676 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 179 (3) on pages 657-658, DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12439, http://zenodo.org/record/14805998