Aculithus languan Jiang & Liu 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Jiang, Zimin
name: Wang, Zhongjing
name: Lyu, Xiaoting
name: Yang, Jun
name: Liu, Keke
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Phrurolithidae
Aculithus
Aculithus languan

description: Aculithus languan Jiang & Liu sp. nov.
Materials
Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: Phu- 178; recordedBy: Liu Ke-Ke; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: E3509C28-A8A8-52B3-8CF6-B2A373512088; Taxon: scientificName: Aculithus languan sp. nov.; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Jiangxi; locality: Shangrao City, Wuyuan County, Wuyuan Forest Birds National Nature Reserve, Dazhangshan, Wolong Valley; verbatimElevation: 533 m; verbatimCoordinates: 29°31'28.84"N, 117°44'39.07"E; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Event: samplingProtocol: sieving; eventDate: 3 / 2 / 2025
Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: Phu- 178; recordedBy: Liu Ke-Ke; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 208348DE-58CD-5180-8C27-980666884DD4; Taxon: scientificName: Aculithus languan sp. nov.; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Jiangxi; locality: Shangrao City, Wuyuan County, Wuyuan Forest Birds National Nature Reserve, Dazhangshan, Wolong Valley; verbatimElevation: 533 m; verbatimCoordinates: 29°31'28.84"N, 117°44'39.07"E; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Event: samplingProtocol: sieving; eventDate: 3 / 2 / 2025
Description
Female (Holotype). Habitus as in Fig. 1 A and B and Fig. 2 C and D. Total length 2.81, carapace 1.23 long, 1.06 wide.
Eye sizes and interdistances (Fig. 1 A): AME 0.05, ALE 0.08, PME 0.04, PLE 0.07; AME-AME 0.03, AME-ALE 0.02, PME-PME 0.07, PME-PLE 0.08, AME-PME 0.08, AME-PLE 0.14, ALE-ALE 0.14, PLE-PLE 0.26, ALE-PLE 0.05. MOA 0.15 long, frontal width 0.11, posterior width 0.14. Chelicerae (Fig. 1 C) with three promarginal (proximal largest, distal smallest) and seven retromarginal teeth (the distal one largest, gradually decreasing in size, compact). Sternum (Fig. 1 B), longer than wide, posteriorly triangular, relatively blunt. Leg measurements: I 3.77 (1.02, 0.47, 1.1, 0.79, 0.39); II 3.47 (0.93, 0.42, 0.82, 0.84, 0.46); III 3.19 (0.9, 0.37, 0.59, 0.81, 0.52); IV 4.32 (1.13, 0.42, 0.92, 1.23, 0.62). Left leg spination (Figs. 1 A and B): femora I d 11, p 111, II d 1, III d 1, IV d 1; tibiae I v 222222, II v 222221; metatarsi I v 2221, II v 2221. Pedicel 0.14 long. Abdomen (Fig. 1 A and B) 1.44 long, 1 wide.
Colouration (Fig. 1 A and B). Carapace yellow, with radial, irregular dark stripes mediolaterally and arc-shaped dark stripes around margin. Fovea distinct, brown. Chelicerae, endites and labium yellow. Sternum yellow, margins with dark brown mottled spots. Legs yellow, femora I-IV distally each with black annulations; tibia II distally with blackish-brown mottled markings, tibiae III-IV distally with blackish-brown annulations. Abdomen yellowish, anteriorly with a pair of large C-shaped markings, covering more than half of the anterior region; posteriorly with five dark brown V-shaped stripes extending towards the abdomen and converging towards the spinnerets; venter posteromedially has a pair of dark brown triangular spots.
Epigyne (Fig. 1 D and E and Fig. 5 A). Epigynal plate weakly sclerotised. Copulatory openings (CO) small, oval, shorter than the length of copulatory ducts (CD), located anterolaterally, widely separated by median septum (MS). Copulatory ducts slightly longer and thicker than spermathecae (Spe), anteriorly with pair of translucent bursae (Bu) covering nearly half of the epigyne. Glandular appendages (GA) slightly thicker than fertilisation ducts (FD), near base of bursae, located on inner side of copulatory ducts. Connecting tubes (CT) extremely short and narrower than spermathecae, extending posteriorly to connect with spermathecae. Spermathecae peanut-shaped, directed medially. Fertilisation ducts longer than spermathecae, directed anteriorly.
Diagnosis
The females of the new species are similar to A. taoyuan (Fu, Chen & Zhang, 2016) comb. nov. in having the large, widely-spaced copulatory openings, the copulatory ducts broader and longer than the spermathecae and the extremely short connecting tubes and the spermathecae directed medially (see Fu et al. (2016): 283-284, figs. 9 G-H and 10 D-E), but can be separated from it by copulatory openings directed laterally (Fig. 1 D and E) (vs. directed anteriorly), the indistinct median septum (vs. distinct median septum) (cf. Fig. 1 D and Fu et al. (2016): 283, fig. 9 G), the peanut-shaped spermathecae (vs. globular spermathecae) and the fertilisation ducts longer than spermathecae (vs. shorter than spermathecae) (cf. Fig. 1 E and Fu et al. (2016): 283, fig. 9 H).
Etymology
The specific epithet refers to the Chinese name of Garrulax courtoisi (Ménégaux, 1923), ' lan guan zao mei', a critically endangered bird species from the Wuyuan National Nature Reserve for Forest Birds; noun in apposition.
Distribution
Known only from the type locality in Jiangxi Province, China (Fig. 7).
Biology
It was collected from leaf litter in areas of broad-leaved forests and bamboo broadleaf mixed forests in hilly areas (Fig. 2 A and B).
description: Published as part of Jiang, Zimin, Wang, Zhongjing, Lyu, Xiaoting, Yang, Jun & Liu, Keke, 2025, Two new species and a new combination in Aculithus Liu & Li, 2022 (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from South China, pp. e 153747 in Biodiversity Data Journal 13 on page e153747, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e153747