Stasimopus Simon 1892
Creators: name: Brandt, Shannon
name: Sole, Catherine
name: Lyle, Robin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Stasimopidae
Stasimopus

description: Genus Stasimopus Simon 1892
Simon 1892: 82; Pocock 1897: 726–728; Hewitt 1915b: 75–85; Roewer 1942: 159; Raven 1985: 143–144; Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002: 31–38; Engelbrecht and Prendini 2012: 8.
Type species: Stasimopus caffrus (Koch 1842).
Diagnosis: The family Stasimopidae is monogeneric (Opatova et al. 2020. The characters for distinguishing this genus thus applies to the family. The family differs from other Ctenizid-like taxa based on the following suite of characteristics based on Raven (1985): The tibia of leg III lacking a saddle-like excavation, the ocelli is twice as wide as it is long and the anterior lobe of the maxillae is anteriorly produced (Engelbrecht & Prendini 2012; Opatova et al. 2020).
Description:
General: Medium to large bodied spiders (22–42 mm) (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002).
Carapace: Cephalic region dome shaped with procurved fovea (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). In S. filmeri, the fovea forms into horn-like protrusion (Engelbrecht & Prendini 2012).
Ocelli: The eyes occur in single cluster on forefront of cephalic region and eyes arranged in two transverse rows (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002; Pocock 1897). Posterior row wider than anterior row (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002; Raven 1985).
Chelicerae: Distinct rastellum with thick spines, as well as cheliceral furrow with two rows of teeth (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002).
Sternum, labium and maxillae: The sternum has single pair of sigilla present. Sigilla are situated opposite III coxa (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002; Pocock 1897). In some male species sigilla are fused at anterior end, forming an arrow-like shape. Labium cuspules present in females and bare in males (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). Maxilla has longer process only at distal end forming a long cone (Pocock 1897; Raven 1985). Maxilla has few basal teeth present (Pocock 1897).
Abdomen: Varies in colour. Four spinnerets. Posterior spinnerets have domed apical segments (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002).
Pedipalps: Male bulb is simple pyriform (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002).
Legs: Female legs are short and stocky. Three tarsal claws present, the paired claw with one large tooth and two smaller teeth below, third claw is untoothed (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). Distal segments of leg I and II densely spined (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). Males have long slender legs.
Spermathecae: Multilobular (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002).
Distribution: The genus is currently recorded from Lesotho and South Africa, in all provinces except Limpopo. It is an endemic to the Afrotropical region.
Included taxa: In this paper, nine new species are described and a description of a S. maraisi male. This increases the number of species in the genus to 56, with 23 of them found in the Karoo region.
Key to adult females of five Stasimopus species in the Karoo region
1. Tuft of spines present ventrally on metatarsus III (Fig 20E).................................................... 2
- Tuft of spines not present ventrally on metatarsus III......................................................... 3
2. Patch of spinules on metatarsus I extends ½ the segment length (Fig 20A)........................ S. hamartia sp. nov.
- Patch of spinules on metatarsus I extends ¼ the segment length (Fig 38A).................... S. venterstadensis sp. nov.
3. Chelicera with extremely dense denticles (>45) (Fig 34C)........................................ S. theaei sp. nov.
- Chelicera with few denticles (<15) (Fig 23C)............................................................... 4
4. Metatarsus III with>26 spines in each row dorsally (Fig 24C)...................................... S. ignis sp. nov.
- Metatarsus III with <21 spines in each row dorsally (Fig 31E)...................................... S. teras sp. nov.
Key to adult males of six Stasimopus species in the Karoo region*
* S. hamartia not included due to damaged state.
1. The largest eye is the AME (Fig 11D)..................................................................... 2
- The largest eye is the ALE (Fig 11B)...................................................................... 3
2. Embolus extends posteriorly in relation to pedipalp tibia (Fig 29B)............................ S. malesociatus sp. nov.
- Embolus extends perpendicularly in relation to pedipalp tibia (Fig 27A).......................... S. karooensis sp. nov.
3. Pedipalp reaches <1/5 of tibia I length..................................................................... 4
- Pedipalp reaches>1/3 of tibia I length..................................................................... 5
4. The carapace is smooth in texture (Fig 7D)................................................... S. maraisi sp. nov.
- The carapace is rugose in texture (Fig 5B)...................................................... S. finni sp. nov.
5. Embolus extends almost parallel in relation to pedipalp tibia (Fig 10B).............................. S. dylani sp. nov.
- Embolus extends distally in relation to pedipalp tibia (Fig 25B)..................................... S. ignis sp. nov.
description: Published as part of Brandt, Shannon, Sole, Catherine & Lyle, Robin, 2023, An integrative taxonomy of the genus Stasimopus Simon 1892 (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) of the Karoo with the description of nine new species and a Stasimopus maraisi Hewitt 1914 male, pp. 1-60 in Zootaxa 5341 (1) on pages 15-19, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5341.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8323744