Tolteca Huber 2000
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Meng, Guanliang
name: Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro
name: Král, Jiří
name: Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M.
name: Carvalho, Leonardo S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Tolteca

description: Genus Tolteca Huber, 2000
Tolteca Huber, 2000: 117.
Type species: Pholcophora hesperia Gertsch, 1982.
Diagnosis
Easily distinguished from only other North American Ninetinae genus Pholcophora by small male cheliceral apophyses originating distally (Figs 38A–B, 44; in Pholcophora large and originating proximally); also by absence of stridulatory ridges on male chelicerae (Figs 41A, 46F); most species (except T. sinnombre sp. nov.) also by knob-shaped structure between epigynum and pedicel (Figs 43A, 45A, 49A); from most species (except P. tehuacan sp. nov.) also by smaller size (body length ~1.1–1.4; in Pholcophora ~1.7–3.1) and shorter legs (tibia 1 <0.7, in Pholcophora>1.0). From other geographically close genera (Papiamenta, Galapa) also by simple rod-shaped procursus (Figs 38C, 51C; much shorter in Papiamenta; with dorsal process in Galapa), by presence of humps on male sternum (absent in Papiamenta), and by unmodified male cheliceral fangs (with processes in Galapa).
Description
Male
MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 1.1–1.4, carapace width 0.45–0.55. Legs very short, tibia 1 ~0.45– 0.60; tibia 1 ~1.0–1.1 x carapace width; tibia 1 L/d 7–9; tibia 2 much shorter than tibia 4 (tibia 2 / tibia 4: 0.6–0.7).
COLOUR. Live specimens reddish brown (Fig. 36); carapace usually monochromous, sometimes with very indistinct darker median line widening anteriorly behind ocular area; abdomen colour slightly variable, usually monochromous, sometimes with indistinct dorsal marks; legs without dark or light bands. Colour in ethanol similar but paler, rather yellowish.
BODY. Ocular area barely raised, eight eyes, AME relatively large, diameter ~25–30 µm, ~60–80% of PME diameter; Carapace without thoracic groove or with very indistinct low median indentation (visible in frontal view only). Clypeus unmodified or with rim slightly more sclerotized than in female. Sternum wider than long, with pair of distinct anterior processes near leg coxae 1. Abdomen globular; presence of epiandrous spigots unclear (reported as present in Huber 2000: fig. 126; not seen in two newly examined males of T. hesperia and T. manzanillo Huber sp. nov.; Fig. 46G); ALS with seven spigots each (Fig. 54C): one strongly widened spigot, one long pointed spigot, and five cylindrical spigots (one of which is unusually large); PMS with two short, pointed spigots (Fig. 54C); PLS without spigots.
CHELICERAE. With one pair of simple frontal apophyses (Figs 38A–B, 41A–B); without stridulatory files (Figs 41A, 46F).
PALPS. Coxa unmodified; trochanter barely modified (indistinct ventral projection); femur cylindrical, slightly widened distally, proximally without retrolateral hump; patella short; tibia globular, with two trichobothria; palpal tarsal organ raised, capsulate with small opening (Figs 41E–F, 46C–D; diameter of opening ~1.1–1.3 µm); procursus simple and straight (Figs 38C, 46A–B), without dorsal flap, not strongly elongated; genital bulb large (compared to palp size), with complex distal system of sclerites and folds, partly only visible in SEM (Figs 41C–D, 46A–B).
LEGS. Without spines and curved hairs; with very short vertical hairs in higher density on tibia 1 (Fig. 42A–B; length of hairs ~20 µm). Trichobothria in usual arrangement: three on each tibia (except tibia 1: prolateral trichobothrium absent), one on each metatarsus; slightly feathered (Fig. 54D); length of dorsal trichobothrium on tibia 1: ~100 µm; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 in very distal position (at 59–65%). Tarsus 1 with 4–6 distinct pseudosegments; tarsus 4 distally with one comb-hair on prolateral side (cf. Fig. 54H); leg tarsal organs very small, capsulate with small opening (Fig. 46E; diameter of opening ~1.0–1.4 µm); three claws (Fig. 42H).
Female
In general (size, colour) similar to male (Fig. 36) but sternum without pair of anterior humps, palpal tarsal organ less strongly raised (Figs 41G, 54E), and leg tibia 1 with usual low number of short vertical hairs; legs either slightly shorter than in males or of same length (only T. oaxaca sp. nov. with reasonable sample size: male/female tibia 1 length: 1.06). Spinnerets and comb-hairs as in male. Epigynum main (anterior) plate transversal band-shaped to crescent-shaped, weakly protruding in lateral view; posterior plate often indistinct, short but wide, usually with median anterior projection. Usually with distinct knob-shaped structure between epigynum and pedicel (Figs 43A, 45A, 49A, 54A–B; absent in T. sinnombre sp. nov.). Internal genitalia very simple, with pair of distinct transversal sclerites and pair of membranous sacs originating medially (Fig. 55), sacs very short in T. oaxaca (9–13 µm) and in T. jalisco (Gertsch, 1982) (18 µm), very long in T. sinnombre (85 µm); in other species ~42–48 µm; apparently without pore plates (possibly with very indistinct tiny groups of pores near median line).
Relationships
The genus Tolteca was not included in the molecular analysis of Eberle et al. (2018). Our new molecular data mostly suggest that Tolteca is sister to a clade consisting of true Pholcophora and a Caribbean clade (Papiamenta Huber, 2000 + Caribbean ‘ Pholcophora ’). This supports a monophyletic North American-Caribbean clade of Ninetinae (Fig. 1; see also general results of molecular analyses above). The latter clade is also strongly supported in our preliminary analyses of UCE data (G. Meng, L. Podsiadlowski, B.A. Huber, unpubl. data), but in that case with Papiamenta as sister to Tolteca + true Pholcophora (no Caribbean ‘ Pholcophora ’ is included in the UCE dataset).
Within Tolteca, our unpartitioned analysis suggests that the most southern species (T. oaxaca sp. nov.) is sister to all other species; among those, T. hesperia is sister to T. jalisco + (T. manzanillo sp. nov. + T. huahua Huber sp. nov.). Our unpublished UCE dataset does not include T. huahua but otherwise it supports the same intrageneric relationships.
Distribution
The genus appears restricted to the Pacific Lowlands and Baja Californian biogeographic provinces of Mexico, as delimited in Morrone et al. (2017) (Fig. 35). The female specimens originating from San Luis Potosí and Puebla provinces tentatively identified as Tolteca and briefly mentioned in Huber (2000: 120) are possibly not Tolteca.
Natural history
Most newly collected specimens were found in low, relatively dry forests (Fig. 56). Here they occupied the thin layers of leaf litter and sometimes the spaces under small stones and pebbles. They often shared the microhabitat with other species of Pholcidae, but Tolteca appeared largely restricted to the dryer areas while other genera (mostly Modisimus) seemed to prefer slightly more humid leaf litter. No webs were observed in the field, but the spiders built tiny silk mats in the glass vials. When disturbed, they ran rapidly and barely slowed down for several minutes. Females carried their disc-shaped egg-sacs under the prosoma (Fig. 36); egg-sacs usually contained 5 or 6 eggs, each with a diameter of ~ 0.35–0.45 mm (Huber & Eberle 2021). Some females had a genital plug (cf. Fig. 49A–B).
Composition
The genus now includes six nominal species, all of which are treated below.
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Meng, Guanliang, Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro, Král, Jiří, Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M. & Carvalho, Leonardo S., 2023, Short-legged daddy-long-leg spiders in North America: the genera Pholcophora and Tolteca (Araneae, Pholcidae), pp. 1-89 in European Journal of Taxonomy 880 (1) on pages 46-49, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.880.2173, http://zenodo.org/record/8155472