Urupuyu Ruiz & Maddison, 2015, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Ruiz, Gustavo R. S.
name: Maddison, Wayne P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Urupuyu

description: Urupuyu gen. nov.
Type species: Urupuyu antisana sp. nov.
Etymology: The generic name is a euphonic combination of the Quechuan words “uru” (=spider) and “puyu” (=cloud), in allusion to the Andean cloud forests where these spiders live. Neuter in gender.
Diagnosis: Urupuyu is a member of the huriines, a group distinguished from other South American amycoid lineages (except bredines) by the combination of chelicerae having a single retromarginal tooth and several promarginal teeth, and male palp with well developed RvTA pointing distally (Figs 23, 28, 33). Huriines differ from bredines in having a standard and more compact salticid body (flattened and elongate in bredines). Urupuyu differs from remaining huriine genera in having a complex RTA divided into two lobes, a more dorsal one forming a hook towards the cymbium (Figs 24, 29, 34), and a more ventral one, which can bear an acute projection (Figs 23, 28, 33); having a membranous projection along the embolus at the middle of its length (Figs 9–10); and being dark and more or less glabrous (Figs 1–5). Besides that, Urupuyu seems to be the only huriine genus with a cleft on the tegulum (Figs 9, arrow within triangle, 22). The epigyne in Urupuyu is similar to that of Scoturius in having the initial portion of the copulation ducts dilated as a chamber (marked with arrow in Figs 26, 31; the female of Atelurius is still unknown), but differs in having more separate copulation openings and longer copulation ducts (Figs 25–26, 30–31). The molecular data suggest Urupuyu and Scoturius are distinct (Figs 37, 38).
Description: Small (2.5–3.0 mm), dark salticids (Figs 1–5) from vegetation of high elevation forests. Carapace covered with small depressions, in the middle of which there is a pore (Figs 1, 6–8; see note below). Between these depressions with pores there are minute punctuations. The clypeus is low in both sexes. No scales on carapace. Chelicera small and vertical in both sexes, with 3–4 promarginal teeth (Figs 11–13) and a single, simple retromarginal tooth. Male palp: unmodified femur and patella. Tibia with a wide RTA forming a hook dorsally (Figs 24, 29, 34) (also with an acute retrolateral projection in some species) and an acute RvTA (Figs 23, 28, 33). Cymbium drop-shaped. Tegulum roundish, bearing a cleft (Fig. 22). Embolus fixed to the tegulum and curling around it, with a median blunt projection lying in a pit of the prolateral side of tegulum (Figs 9–10). Legs can be black or yellow (Figs 1–5). Leg formula: males 1423, females 4123. Male second tarsus with modified scale-like setae (Figs 15–17). Tarsal claws small. Claw tufts poorly developed. Males with dorsal abdominal scutum and epiandrous fusules (Fig. 14). Epigyne: posterior border slightly indented, with no conspicuous pocket (Figs 25, 30). U-shaped copulation openings connected to each other, forming an atrium. Copulation ducts begin wide and extend backwards, fold at the center and extend anteriorly. Beneath the copulation openings they fold backwards again and connect to small spermathecae, from which fertilization ducts emerge (Figs 26, 31). Spinnerets (Figs 18–21; examined only in U. antisana, male): the ALS has one major ampullate spigot (MAP) and one nubbin (n) surrounded by about nine piriform (pi) spigots (Fig. 19); the PMS has a single minor ampullate spigot (mAP) and four aciniform (ac) spigots (Fig. 20); the PLS has about five or six aciniform spigots (Fig. 21).
Note. Such depressions with pores on the carapace have also been found in non-salticids Teutamus Thorell, 1890 (Liocranidae), Orthobula Simon, 1897 (Phrurolithidae) and in trachelid spiders (Ramírez 2014: fig. 6D, character 5 in phylogeny).
Distribution. Cloud forests of Ecuador.
description: Published as part of Ruiz, Gustavo R. S. & Maddison, Wayne P., 2015, The new Andean jumping spider genus Urupuyu and its placement within a revised classification of the Amycoida (Araneae: Salticidae), pp. 251-279 in Zootaxa 4040 (3) on pages 253-254, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4040.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/245740