Smeringopina ankasa Huber, 2013, new species
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Smeringopina
Smeringopina ankasa

description: Smeringopina ankasa new species
Figs. 31, 349–353, 359–361, 372–377
Type. ♂ holotype from Ghana, Western Region, Ankasa National Park (5°13.0’N, 2°39.1’W), 180 m a.s.l., forest near entrance, day collecting, 22.ii.2013 (B.A. Huber), in ZFMK (Ar 10229).
Other material examined. GHANA: Western Region: Ankasa National Park, same data as type, 2♂ 19♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10230-31); same data but night collecting, 2♂ 3♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10232); same data, 3♀ in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gha 160); Ankasa National Park (~ 5°15.1’N, 2°38.4’W), ~ 100 m a.s.l., forest along Big Tree Trail, 23.ii.2013 (B.A. Huber), 1♂ 2♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10233).
IVORY COAST: Appouesso, Forêt classée de la Bossematié [6°36.9’N, 3°27.1’W], night, 13.iii.1997 (T. Steyn), 1♂ in MRAC (207400); same locality, dense forest, in webs between tree buttresses, 30.xi.1993 (R. Jocqué), 1♀ in MRAC (177613 part); same locality, forest, pitfall, 15./ 29.i.1995 (Jocqué, Tanoh), 3♂ (3 vials) in MRAC (204444-46).
LIBERIA: Bong: Bong Range forest [6°49’N, 10°17’W], pitfalls in rainforest, 15.ii.–6.xi.2005 (D. Flomo), 2♂ 5♀ (7 vials) in MRAC (216603, 612, 636, 801, 217571, 218124, 219184).
Assigned tentatively: GHANA: Central Region: Kakum National Park (5°20.9’N, 1°23.0’W), 160 m a.s.l., forest near entrance, day collecting, 19.–20.ii.2013 (B.A. Huber), 1♂ 5♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10234-35).
Etymology. The name is a noun in apposition, derived from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Easily distinguished from S. bomfobiri and other known congeners by distinctive shape of procursus (Figs. 372–373), male chelicerae (no distal apophyses; Fig. 374), and by epigynum with strongly protruding anterior plate (Figs. 359–360).
Male (holotype). Total body length 3.9, carapace width 1.4. Leg 1: 43.4 (10.2 + 0.5 + 10.5 + 20.2 + 2.0), tibia 2: 6.2, tibia 3: 4.3, tibia 4: 6.6; tibia 1 L/d: 85. Distance PME-PME 140 µm, diameter PME 140 µm, distance PME- ALE 80 µm, distance AME-AME 45 µm, diameter AME 135 µm. Carapace ochre with darker triangular mark posteriorly and lateral margins; ocular area ochre, clypeus with indistinct dark bands, sternum dark brown; legs ochre, with barely visible darker rings; abdomen ochre with darker pattern dorsally, laterally, and ventrally. Habitus as in Figs. 349–350, ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with very indistinct ‘pseudo-lenses’; clypeus unmodified; deep thoracic pit and pair of shallow furrows diverging behind pit. Chelicerae as in Fig. 374, with lateral proximal apophyses and frontal projections arising from bases of lateral apophyses, without distal apophyses, with large and small modified (cone-shaped) hairs. Palps as in Figs. 351–353; coxa with distinct retrolateral hump; trochanter with ventral sclerotized hump; femur with whitish ventral area bordered retrolaterally by weakly sclerotized flap, without prolateral modification; prolateral femur-patella joint strongly shifted toward ventrally; tarsus with some barely stronger hairs dorsally; procursus with several distinctive processes (Figs. 372– 373), distal part appears hinged (most clearly in dorsal view: Fig. 352); bulb with weakly sclerotized conical embolus (Fig. 375). Legs without spines and curved hairs, with few vertical hairs, retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 1.5%; prolateral trichobothrium present on all tibiae; pseudosegments barely visible. Gonopore apparently with two epiandrous spigots (not confirmed by SEM).
Variation. Number and position of modified hairs on chelicerae slightly variable even within localities. In males from Liberia the rows of modified hairs on the chelicerae are closer to the median line. The male from Kakum N.P. differs slightly in the shape of the procursus (shape of prolateral distal flap) and is therefore assigned tentatively (see also females below). Tibia 1 in 8 other males: 8.6–10.8 (mean: 9.6).
Female. In general similar to male. Tibia 1 in 28 females: 6.5–8.4 (mean 7.5). Epigynum with strongly protruding anterior plate and large posterior plate (Figs. 359–360, 376); internal genitalia as in Figs. 361 and 377. Females from Kakum N.P. with posterior border of anterior epigynal plate less strongly indented and with distinct hump on anterior epigynal plate.
Distribution. Widely distributed in southwestern Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Liberia (Fig. 293).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., 2013, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Guineo-Congolian spider genus Smeringopina Kraus (Araneae, Pholcidae, pp. 1-160 in Zootaxa 3713 (1) on pages 25-26, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3713.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/284803