Asceua arborivaga Jocqué & Henrard, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Jocqué, Rudy
name: Henrard, Arnaud
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Zodariidae
Asceua
Asceua arborivaga

description: Asceua arborivaga sp. nov.
Figs 1, 2, 24
Material examined.
Holotype: Guinea • ♀; Mount Nimba, Fouenyi Forest; 7°40'00.0"N, 8°28'00.0"W; 1. III. 2012; sieving litter under trees; A. Henrard, C. Allard, P. Bimou, and M. Sidibé leg., RMCA_247163.
Paratypes: Guinea • 1 ♀; same data as holotype; RMCA_247298; • 2 ♀♀; Mount Nimba, Nzérékoré, Gouan Forest (mid one) near SMFG camp site; 7°42'02.9"N, 8°23'57.8"W; 6. X. 2011; litter in trees and shrubs; at 1.5–3 m above the floor; A. Henrard, and D. VandenSpiegel leg.; RMCA_247161.
Diagnosis.
Females of this species are recognised by the dark dorsum of the abdomen with two V-shaped pairs of pale spots (Fig. 1 A, B), by the epigyne with a long, narrow, tapered scape (Fig. 2 A – D, H) and by the duct conformation of the vulva (Fig. 2 E – G).
Etymology.
The specific name, arborivaga means ‘ active in trees’, refers to the ecology of the species, which has been found in litter but also in trees.
Description.
Female Holotype. Fig. 1 A – E. TL 3.91. Colour in ethanol: carapace with dark thoracic area and medium brown cephalic area with faint darker ‘ V’ in front of fovea and narrow dark rings around eyes; chelicerae uniform medium brown; endites and labium pale brown with pale anterior margin; sternum dark brown, paler in the centre; legs: coxae white, trochanters dark brown, femora with narrow proximal dark ring, wider pale ring and distal 2 / 3 dark brown, patellae pale with pro- and retrolateral dark patch, tibiae pale with ventral dark stripe; dorsum of abdomen black with two pairs of white blotches arranged in V-shape, and tiny white spot in front of spinnerets; sides uniform black extended on venter in front of pale yellow spinnerets, remainder of venter pale. Carapace 1.70 long, 1.14 wide, 0.78 high. Eye sizes and interdistances: AME: 0.10; ALE: 0.08; AME – AME: 0.03; AME – ALE: 0.05; PME: 0.09: PLE: 0.12; PME – PME: 0.12; PME – PLE: 0.13. MOQ: frontal width 0.23, posterior width 0.30, length 0.30. Clypeus 0.36 high. Chilum: small triangle 0.12 wide, 0.10 high. Sternum shield-shaped, 0.85 long, 0.78 wide. All femora with one short, dorsal spine in proximal half.
Legs: measurements in Table 1.
Epigyne (Fig. 2 A – H): Scape (Sc) long, narrow, with widest part in the middle, distally tapered and rounded; copulatory ducts in transparency vague, longitudinal; copulatory ducts in posterior part, mainly transverse, intricately wound, in dense, wide spirals in anterior part.
Male. Unknown.
Variation.
Females (n = 2). TL 4.19–4.47, CL 1.56–1.70. White patches on abdominal dorsum may be less strongly inclined and sometimes anastomosing.
Distribution.
The species is known from the Mount Nimba area in Guinea (Fig. 24).
description: Published as part of Jocqué, Rudy & Henrard, Arnaud, 2024, A revision of Afrotropical Asceua (Araneae, Zodariidae), ant-eating spiders with puzzling distributions, pp. 161-198 in African Invertebrates 65 (2) on pages 161-198, DOI: 10.3897/afrinvertebr.65.138029