Alpaida penca Deza & Andía, 2014, new species
Creators: name: Deza, Mariajosé
name: Andía, Juan Manuel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Araneidae
Alpaida
Alpaida penca

description: Alpaida penca new species
(Figures 10–34, 37–38)
Type material. Holotype female from PERU: Department of Cajamarca, Cajamarca, Mar. 11, 2010, M. Deza coll., deposited in MEKRB (UAAr-275/2010); same label data, four male and six female paratypes (UAAr-016/2010).
Additional material examined. Peru, Cajamarca, Cumbe Mayo, Aug. 26, 1984, MUSM – ENT 0 501924, 1 ♀ (MUSM). Cajamarca, Mashcon River, Feb 10, 1965, MUSM – ENT 0 5011930, 12 ♀, 3 ♂ (MUSM).
Etymology. The specific name is a noun in apposition taken from the local vernacular name for this spider.
Diagnosis. Females of A. penca resembles A. iguazu and A. tijuca in having the posterior median plate of the epigynum partially divided in middle (Levi, 1988: figs. 331, 337), but are distinguished by the lips without posterior median swellings (Fig. 23); females differs from rest of species by the rectangular epigynum in ventral view, and the shape of the lateral lobes of the epigynum (Figs. 21, 22). Males differ from all species by the following combination of characters: the shape of the distal lobe of the terminal apophysis (Figs. 25, 27–28, 31–32), conductor with a point apically directed (Fig. 33), median apophysis with a tip pointing at the cymbium and the embolus directed more prolaterally (Figs. 25, 27, 29).
Description. Female (holotype): Carapace orange-brown with dusky median patch (Fig. 12). Cephalic area with white hairs, clypeus with few setae (Fig. 12). Eye measurements: AME 0.13, ALE 0.11, PME 0.12, PLE 0.10, AME-ALE 0.51, PME-PLE 0.60, AME-AME 0.16, PME-PME 0.14. Chelicerae orange, with black marks on its base, and distally black. Sternum orange with some white pigment marks; coxae orange with black retrolateral mark, trochanters black, some orange prolaterally (Fig. 13). Labium and endites dark brown, yellow-white distally (Fig. 13). Legs orange with black longitudinal dorsal marks, and all articles distally black, femora and patellae with large black ventral marks (Fig. 19). Abdomen oval, longer than wide (Fig. 10), dark orange dorsally with longitudinal guanine mark in the middle, and two black longitudinal marks on each side. Sides of abdomen orange with black, irregular marks. Venter with black subtriangular mark, surrounded by guanine pigment spots, and spinnerets black (Fig. 11). Epigynum wider than long, with a notch more or less indistinct; posterior margin almost straight and median lobe rounded (Fig. 21, 22); posterior median plate divided in middle, lips without swellings (Fig. 23); spermathecae spherical; fertilization ducts curved, convergent and dorsally directed (Fig. 24). Total length 7.58; carapace length 3.33, width 2.53; clypeus height 0.12; sternum length 1.28, width 1.27; abdomen length 4.87, width 3.40, height 3.13. Leg formula I/II/IV/III. Leg lengths (I/II/III/IV): femur 2.77/2.53/1.87/2.53; patella 1.20/1.13/0.73/1.13; tibia 2.37/2.07/1.17/1.93; metatarsus 2.17/1.90/1.17/1.97; tarsus 1.07/0.97/0.83/1.00; total leg 9.58/8.60/5.77/8.56.
Male (paratype): Coloration as in female (Figs. 14 – 17). Few setae in clypeus and between eyes (Fig. 20). Eye measurements: AME 0.10, ALE 0.08, PME 0.09, PLE 0.07, AME-ALE 0.28, PME-PLE 0.38, AME-AME 0.14, PME-PME 0.12. Second tibiae slightly thicker than the first, with 8 prolateral, and 5 ventral, strong spines (Fig. 18). Median apophysis wide, with a tip pointing at the cymbium and a small teeth oriented in the same direction (Figs. 25, 27, 29); terminal apophysis complex, with a basal prong pointed and the distal lobe rounded (Figs. 25, 27, 31, 32); conductor with a point apically directed, behind the curved embolus (Figs. 25, 27, 31, 33). Total length 4.93; carapace length 2.47, width 2.07; clypeus height 0.15; sternum length 1.17, width 0.90; abdomen length 2.87, width 1.87, height 1.63. Leg formula I/II/IV/III. Leg lengths (I/II/III/IV): femur 2.13/1.97/1.43/1.83; patella 0.93/ 0.87/0.63/0.77; tibia 1.70/1.37/0.87/1.43; metatarsus 1.43/1.23/0.83/1.40; tarsus 0.83/0.73/0.63/0.70; total leg 7.02/ 6.17/4.39/6.13.
Variation. Carapace length of females varies from 3.29 to 3.47 (n=20), carapace length of males from 2.47 to 2.93 (n=7).
Natural history. These spiders build a vertical orb-web in agave plants – Agave americana L. (subsp. americana) var. expansa (Jacobi) Gentry –, where they cohabit with Araneus meropes (Keyserling, 1865), registered already in a great variety of habitats, conditions and locations (along roads for example) (see Levi, 1991: 224) and Metepeira cajabamba Piel, 2001, that occurs from near sea level to 3500 m.a.s.l., in Ecuador and Peru (Piel, 2001). The highlands of Cajamarca, where the specimens were collected, are semi-arid, with mild weather, dry and sunny in the day and cold at night, with pronounced rainfall between December and March. Agave plants are evergreen, succulent and with spiny edges, introduced in the country in pre-Columbian times (Pino-Infante, 2006).
Distribution. Peru, Cajamarca.
description: Published as part of Deza, Mariajosé & Andía, Juan Manuel, 2014, Two new species of the orb-weaving spider genus Alpaida (Araneae, Araneidae) from Peru, pp. 67-77 in Zootaxa 3827 (1) on pages 69-74, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3827.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/286492