Coenoptychus Simon 1885
Creators: name: Paul, Jimmy
name: Sankaran, Pradeep M.
name: Sebastian, Pothalil A.
name: Joseph, Mathew M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Corinnidae
Coenoptychus

description: Coenoptychus Simon, 1885
Coenoptychus Simon, 1885: 36; Simon 1897: 174; Majumder & Tikader, 1991: 145; Coenoptychus Deeleman-Reinhold, 2001: 329.
Onychocryptus Karsch, 1892: 295.
Diagnosis. The genus Coenoptychus seems most similar to Graptartia in their shared resemblance of velvet ants, but can be distinguished by the following combination of features: rectangular eye arrangement and recurved PER (Fig. 4A, Haddad 2004: figs 2‒3) vs circular eye arrangement and procurved PER in Graptartia (Haddad 2004: figs 1, 19); carapace with less narrowed ocular region (Figs 2A, C, 4E) vs strongly narrowed ocular region in Graptartia (Fig. 4D); dorsal abdominal setae feathery (Haddad 2004: figs 11‒12) vs dorsal abdominal setae clavate in Graptartia (Haddad 2004: fig. 10); three teeth on cheliceral promargin vs two in Graptartia; lack of RTA (Fig. 3A‒C; Haddad 2004: figs 27‒28, 32‒33) vs a small hook-shaped RTA in Graptartia (cf. Haddad 2004: figs 22‒ 23); distally pointed apical part of cymbium (Fig. 3A‒C; Haddad 2004: figs 27‒28, 32‒33) vs prolaterally pointed and retrolaterally blunt apical part of cymbium in Graptartia (Haddad 2004: figs 22‒23); corkscrew-shaped embolus directed straight or prolaterally (Fig. 3C; Haddad 2004: figs 13‒14, 27‒28, 32‒33) vs clamp-shaped embolus in Graptartia (Haddad 2004: figs 22‒23); reniform spermathecae I (Fig. 3E‒F; Haddad 2004: figs 25‒26, 30‒31) vs narrow in Graptartia (Haddad 2004: figs 20‒21).
Type species: Coenoptychus pulcher Simon, 1885, by monotypy.
Description. Small to medium spiders (males 3.8‒6.0, females 3.95‒12.0) in length. Carapace dark reddish to orange, with dark grey borders, papillate, scattered with white long and feathery setae, medially broad, slightly elevated from eye region towards rear, highest at two-thirds its length, fovea distinct or indistinct. Eye field dark, MOQ trapezoid, AER procurved, PER recurved (Fig. 4A, Haddad 2004: figs 2‒3). Chelicerae orange to grey, with black setae dorsally, promargin with three teeth, retromargin with two teeth, fangs baso-promarginally with modified long black setae in C. pulcher females and possibly found in C. mutillicus comb. nov. and C. tropicalis comb. nov. females (Fig. 4G‒H). Endites straight to slightly depressed laterally, longer than wide. Labium wider than long, with few black setae. Sternum reddish to orange, papillate, covered with feathery setae intermingled with long and short setae. Leg formula 4123, legs spinose, scattered feathery setae on legs, scopulae weak, comprising two rows of setae, leg I femur uniformly dark coloured, femora II‒IV with dark grey annulations. Abdomen oval, covered with short, black feathery setae, scattered long white and grey setae and short white feathery setae that form the pattern, dorsal scutum entire, venter covered with short and long black setae interspersed with black feathery setae. Spinnerets closely grouped together, ALS largest and subconical. Male palp segments pale orange to red-brown, without retrolateral tibial apophysis, tibia prolaterally with one pair of spines (Fig. 3A; Haddad 2004: figs 27, 32); cymbium broad, gradually narrowing apically, with dense mat of tiny setae on dorsum (Figs 3A, C); tegulum pear-shaped, with stump-like apical embolus base; subtegulum small, partly visible retrolaterally; embolus spiral with 1.5‒2.5 turns (Figs 3A‒D; Haddad 2004: figs 13‒14, 27‒28, 32‒33). Female epigyne domed plate-like, reddish-brown, copulatory openings in circular or semi-circular ridges (Figs 2G, 3E; Haddad 2004: figs 25‒26, 30‒31), spermathecae I kidney-shaped, spermathecae II round to subtriangular (Figs 2H, 3F; Haddad 2004: figs 25‒26, 30‒31). All species mimic velvet ants (Figs 1A‒F, 2A, C, 4E).
Distribution. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania (Fig. 5)
description: Published as part of Paul, Jimmy, Sankaran, Pradeep M., Sebastian, Pothalil A. & Joseph, Mathew M., 2018, A review of the wasp mimicking spider genus Coenoptychus Simon, 1885 (Araneae: Corinnidae: Castianeirinae), pp. 163-172 in Zootaxa 4413 (1) on pages 164-165, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4413.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/1221984