Rhene amabilis Wiśniewski & Wesołowska, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wiśniewski, Konrad
name: Wesołowska, Wanda
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Rhene
Rhene amabilis

description: Rhene amabilis sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0419FA65-C512-4D9E-8985-995E38640EAF
Figs 73–74
Diagnosis
The species is distinctive in having a unique form of the genitalia. The male can be distinguished from its congeners by the shape of the embolus, which is wider at the tip than at the base and in ventral view looks as if it was two-tipped (Figs 73C, 74B). The epigyne has spacious chambers in the initial part of the copulatory ducts, with adjacent large accessory glands. A similar internal structure of epigyne can be seen in Rhene konradi Wesołowska, 2009 but its accessory glands are smaller (compare Fig.74F with Wesołowska 2009b: fig. 8).
Etymology
The specific name is Latin, meaning ‘attractive’, and refers to the pretty body form of this spider.
Material examined
Holotype
UGANDA • ♂; Masindi distr., Budongo Forest; 1°45′ N, 31°25′ E; dry season; 15–25 Jan. 1997; T. Wagner leg.; ZFMK 2924.
Paratypes
UGANDA • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; same locality as for holotype; 11–20 Jun. 1995; ZFMK 2943 • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2944 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 3003 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2935 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2936 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2962 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 3015 • 2 ♀♀; same locality as for preceding; 1–10 Jun. 1995; ZFMK 2912 • 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 3004 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2033 • 1 ♂; same locality as for preceding; 19–30 Jul. 1995; ZFMK 2995 • 1 ♂; same locality as for preceding; 5–15 Jan. 1997; ZFMK 2923 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2939 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2955 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2964 • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2970 • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK 2975 • 1 ♀; same locality as for preceding; 15–25 Jan. 1997; ZFMK 3008.
Description
Male
General appearance as in Fig. 73A.
MEASUREMENTS. Cephalothorax length 1.6–1.8, width 1.8–1.9, height 0.7. Eye field length 1.0–1.1, anterior width 1.2–1.4, posterior width 1.6–1.8. Abdomen length 1.7–1.8, width 1.6–1.7.
CARAPACE. Very flat, rounded, with large eye field, occupying majority of carapace, brown, eyes with black rings, two blackish spots in center of ocular area. Dorsum of carapace clothed in dense white hairs, markedly dense above first row of eyes, eye field pitted. Clypeus very low, dark. Chelicerae unidentati; labium, endites and sternum dark brown.
ABDOMEN. Oval, flattened, brown, with darker wide median stripe extending from anterior edge to transverse broad stripe halfway down the abdomen, posterior edge also dark, blackish. Abdomen covered with whitish hairs, venter brown. Spinnerets yellowish grey.
LEGS. First pair black, distinctly bigger and thicker than other legs, with femora covered with white hairs. Legs II–IV light brown with darker distal ends of their segments. Leg hairs whitish.
PALPS. Brown, palpal tibia with hooked short apophysis, its base broad, (Figs 73D, 74D); tegulum large, spermophore meandering (Figs 73C, 74B), embolus widening towards the end, with notch at tip, apparently forked (Fig. 74C).
Female
Similar to male.
MEASUREMENTS. Cephalothorax length 1.6–1.7, width 1.7–1.8, height 0.7. Eye field length 1.0–1.1, anterior width 1.2–1.3, posterior width 1.5–1.6. Abdomen length 1.9–2.2, width 1.7–1.8.
EPIGYNE. Rounded with two anterior depressions wide apart, their edges strongly sclerotized (Figs 73E, 74E). Internal structure as in Fig. 74F, inlet part of copulatory ducts forming large chambers with accessory glands, spermathecae semicircular.
description: Published as part of Wiśniewski, Konrad & Wesołowska, Wanda, 2024, Jumping spiders (Salticidae) of Uganda - revised list, new species and distributional data, pp. 1-171 in European Journal of Taxonomy 952 on pages 112-114, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2024.952.2647, http://zenodo.org/record/13752285