Modisimus mariposas Huber & Fischer & Astrin 2010, SP. NOV.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Fischer, Nadine
name: Astrin, Jonas J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Modisimus
Modisimus mariposas

description: MODISIMUS MARIPOSAS HUBER & FISCHER SP. NOV.   
(Figs 76, 166–168, 200)  
 Type: Male holotype from near Jima (19°01.4 ′ N, 70°28.8 ′ W), Monseñor Nouel Prov., Dominican Republic; degraded forest at brook through plantation, ~ 700 m a.s.l., near ground, 8 November 2005 (B.A. Huber), in ZFMK (DR 11).   
 Etymology: The species name honours the Mirabal sisters, who fervently opposed the dictatorship of Trujillo, and formed a group of opponents known as Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). Three of them were assassinated in 1960; the name is used as a noun in apposition.   
 Diagnosis: Medium-sized species, easily distinguished from congeners by procursus shape (Fig. 166; dorsal projection), club-shaped hairs on male chelicerae (Fig. 176; median hairs on apophyses), and epigynum shape (Fig. 168).   
 Male (holotype): Total length, 1.9; carapace width, 0.8. Leg 1: 21.5 (5.2 + 0.3 + 5.3 + 8.7 + 2.0); tibia 2, 3.5; tibia 3, 2.6; tibia 4, 3.4. Tibia 1 L/d: 70. Habitus similar to M. jima sp. nov. (cf. Fig. 19), carapace pale ochre-yellow, with light-brown lateral bands, dark median line and wider dark median band visible through cuticle; ocular area also darker, clypeus with pair of brown stripes; sternum mostly light brown, medially whitish; legs ochre to light brown, tips of femora and tibiae lighter, very indistinct darker rings subdistally on femora and tibiae; abdomen bluish grey, densely covered with small black spots dorsally and laterally, with indistinct whitish lines. Ocular area elevated; thoracic furrow distinct. PME–PME, 70 Mm; PME diameter, 105 Mm; PME–ALE, 105 Mm; AME tiny, but apparently with lenses. Sternum wider than long (0.6/0.4), unmodified. Chelicerae with short modified hairs in distinctive pattern, median group on apophysis, lateral group not elevated (Fig. 167). Palps as in Figure 166, coxa with retrolateral apophysis, femur with proximal flap retrolaterally and distal apophysis ventrally; procursus with rounded dorsal projection and widened distally (mostly membranous structures); bulbal apophysis very wide in dorsal view. Legs with many short vertical hairs on all femora; no curved hairs and no spines; retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 12%; prolateral trichobothrium missing on tibia 1, but present on other tibiae; tarsus 1 with ~30 pseudosegments.   
 Female: In general similar to male; tibia 1 missing in female from near Jima; epigynum in female from near Jima apparently artificially spread, with a pair of dark structures visible through the frontal plate; dorsal view as in Figure 76. The female from Loma Quita Espuela has a very similar, but slightly smaller, epigynum, and is therefore assigned tentatively; tibia 1: 4.0.   
 Distribution: Known from two localities (one tentative) in the central Dominican Republic (Fig. 200).   
 Material examined: Dominican Republic: Monseñor Nouel Prov., near Jima: 1♂, holotype above; same data, 1♀ and one juvenile (ZFMK, DR 11).   
 Assigned tentatively: Dominican Republic: Duarte Prov., Reserva Científica Loma Quita Espuela, at ~ 500 m a.s.l. (19°21.5 ′ N, 70°09 ′ W), 10 November 2005 (B.A. Huber), 1♀ (ZFMK, DR 27).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Fischer, Nadine & Astrin, Jonas J., 2010, High level of endemism in Haiti's last remaining forests: a revision of Modisimus (Araneae: Pholcidae) on Hispaniola, using morphology and molecules, pp. 244-299 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158 (2) on pages 280-282, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00559.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5438272