Vicirionessa Wesołowska & Russell-Smith 2022, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Wesołowska, Wanda
name: Russell-Smith, Anthony
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Vicirionessa

description: Genus Vicirionessa gen. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 7E5D76E3-577F-4C47-B01F-FB7FA4DB6D6E
Type species
Viciria peckhamorum Lessert, 1927.
Etymology
The generic name was created by adding the - nessa ending to the name Viciria. Gender feminine.
Diagnosis and affinities
Medium-sized spiders, measuring 5–10 mm. Carapace pear-shaped, widest at half of the length of the thoracic part. Abdomen elongated, narrowing towards the end. Chelicerae unidentate. Legs long, first and second pair longer and stouter than others, often covered with long thick hairs, spines numerous. Palpal organ with elongated bulb, medium-length embolus originates on its prolateral side and quite large tibial apophysis. Females have epigynes with two large depressions, the edges of which are strongly sclerotized, in some species their course is spiral.
Vicirionessa gen. nov. is closely related to both Evarcha Simon, 1902 and Hyllus C.L. Koch, 1846. Unfortunately, both of these latter genera are poorly defined and each contains a significant diversity in genital morphology (see for example Kanesharatnam & Benjamin (2021) for Evarcha). Until both Evarcha and Hyllus are critically revised, the exact limits of Vicirionessa will remain unclear.
The epigyne of Vicirionessa gen. nov. resembles that of Evarcha (as exemplified by the type species, E. falcata) in having the central depression partially divided posteriorly by a heavily sclerotized structure resembling a lower case Greek omega (ω). This contrasts with the undivided oval or circular central depression in Hyllus. Most species of Vicironessa do not have a pair of pockets behind the central depression which is characteristic of Evarcha. The male palp of Vicirionessa resembles that of Evarcha in the relatively short embolus which arises at the base of the tegulum on the prolateral margin. In most species of Hyllus the embolus is longer, often rotating through as much as 270° around the margin of the tegulum. The terminal portion of the embolus in Vicirionessa resembles that of Hyllus in being narrow while in Evarcha it is broader. The RTA in Vicirionessa is large and shovel-shaped while in the other two genera it is smaller and rarely shovel-shaped. The male carapace of species of both Evarcha and Hyllus have a pattern of two broad white longitudinal bands which are lacking or only faintly developed in Vicirionessa. The female carapace in species of Vicirionessa has a pair of small dark patches flanking the fovea which are lacking in Evarcha and Hyllus. The genus Vicirionessa should be included in the Plexippini Blackwall, 1841 sensu Maddison (2015).
Comments
The majority of species included in Vicirionessa gen. nov. were originally described as members of Viciria Thorell, 1877, then transferred to Brancus Simon, 1902. This latter genus was recognized as a junior synonym of Thyene Simon, 1885 by synonymization of its type species (see above). The species remaining from the synonimized Brancus are not related to Viciria pavesii Thorell, 1877, type species of the Oriental genus Viciria, so it would be pointless to go back to their original combination. Therefore, a new genus Vicirionessa was created for them.
Composition
Vicirionessa gen. nov. consists of twelve species, all distributed in Africa. Seven species included here are moved from the synonymized genus Brancus: Vicirionessa besanconi (Berland & Millot, 1941) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa fuscimana (Simon, 1903) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa mustela (Simon, 1902) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa niveimana (Simon, 1902) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa occidentalis (Wesołowska & Russell-Smith, 2011) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa peckhamorum (Lessert, 1927) gen. et comb. nov. and Vicirionessa signata (Dawidowicz & Wesołowska, 2016) gen. et comb. nov. Four others are transferred from the genus Viciria: Vicirionessa chabanaudi (Fage, 1923) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa equestris (Simon, 1903) gen. et comb. nov., Vicirionessa prenanti (Berland & Millot, 1941) gen. et comb. nov. and Vicirionessa tergina (Simon, 1903) gen. et comb. nov. And one more species, Vicirionessa albocincta (Thorell, 1899) gen. et comb. nov. from Hyllus.
description: Published as part of Wesołowska, Wanda & Russell-Smith, Anthony, 2022, Jumping spiders from Ivory Coast collected by J. - C. Ledoux (Araneae, Salticidae), pp. 1-143 in European Journal of Taxonomy 841 (1) on pages 129-130, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.841.1943, http://zenodo.org/record/7195354