Smeringopus ubicki Huber 2012, new species
Creators: name: HUBER, BERNHARD A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Smeringopus
Smeringopus ubicki

description: Smeringopus ubicki new species
Figs. 440, 449–450, 465–466, 494–499
Type. Male holotype from South Africa, Western Cape Province, Oudtshourn [33°34’S, 22°12’E], at campground, 5.x.1999 (D. Ubick, S. Prinsloo), in CAS.
Etymology. The species is named for Darrell Ubick, arachnologist at California Academy of Sciences.
Diagnosis. Distinguished from similar congeners by shapes of procursus (distal structures, Fig. 494; similar S. lotzi), bulb (processes of embolus, Figs. 495, 496), cheliceral armature (presence and position of proximal humps; Figs. 497, 498), and shape of epigynum (Fig. 465; round pockets; wider apart than in S. lotzi).
Male (holotype). Total body length 5.8, carapace width 1.9. Leg 1: 39.2 (10.5 + 0.8 + 9.9 + 15.9 + 2.1), tibia 2: 7.5, tibia 3: 6.0, tibia 4: 8.4; tibia 1 L/d: 43. Habitus similar S. lotzi (cf. Figs. 428, 429). Carapace ochre-yellow with brown median and lateral marks, clypeus with pair of dark stripes, sternum ochre-yellow with brown pattern, leg femora and tibiae with subdistal dark rings, abdomen with dorsal and indistinct ventral pattern. Distance PME-PME 125 µm, diameter PME 175 µm, distance PME-ALE 55 µm, distance AME-AME 30 µm, diameter AME 135 µm. Ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with ‘pseudo-lenses’; deep thoracic pit. Chelicerae with proximal and distal apophyses (Figs. 497, 498). Palps as in Figs. 449 and 450, coxa with distinct retrolateral apophysis, trochanter barely modified, femur with shallow retrolateral furrow with distinct proximal rim, procursus with distinctive distal processes in dorsal view (Fig. 494; retrolateral view as in S. lotzi; cf. Fig. 487), bulb with distinctive complex embolus (Figs. 495, 496). Legs without spines, few vertical hairs, with curved hairs on tibiae and metatarsi 1 and 2; retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 3.5%; prolateral trichobothrium present on tibia 1.
Variation. Sternum in some specimens monochromous; abdomen ventrally in some specimens with distinct pattern. Tibia 1 in 3 other males: 9.1, 12.9, 13.0.
Female. In general similar to male; tibia 1 in 3 females: 10.2, 11.5, 12.0. Epigynum a simple plate with round pockets (Fig. 465); internal genitalia as in Figs. 466 and 499.
Distribution. Widely distributed in southern South Africa (Fig. 475).
Material examined. SOUTH AFRICA: Western Cape Prov.: Oudtshourn: 1♂ type above; same data, 1♂ in CAS. Karoo National Park [~ 32°19’S, 22°30’E], in burrow, 4.i.1996 (A. Leroy), 1♂ in NCP. Knysna, Uitzicht Annex (34°00’S, 23°20’E), 28.xii.1988, 6.xii.1989 and 18.xii.1989 (L.N. Lotz), 2♂ 1♀ 1 juv. (3 vials) in NMBA (3134, 3309, 3342). Eastern Cape Prov.: 22 mi W of Cofimvaba [~ 32°01’S, 27°15’E], 940 m a.s.l., 14.iv.1958 (E.S. Ross, R. E. Leech), 2♂ in CAS. Babiaan River, Bedford [~ 32°41’S, 26°07’E], date/collector not given/ unreadable, 2♂ 2♀ in BMNH (03.6.25-26-29). Grahamstown [33°18’S, 26°32’E], xi.1900 (Schonland), 1♂ in BMNH. Zebra National Park near Cradock [~ 32°15’S, 25°33’E], web in grass, 22.iii.1989 (A. Leroy), 1♂ in NCP (89/722). Ecca Pass, 15 km NE of Grahamstown direction Bedford [33°15’S, 26°36’E], under stones, 16.i.1989 (R. Jocqué), 1♀ in MRAC (169731).
description: Published as part of HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2012, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Afrotropical endemic genus Smeringopus Simon, 1890 (Araneae: Pholcidae), pp. 1-138 in Zootaxa 3461 (1) on pages 81-83, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3461.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6415657