Wanniyala mudita Huber 2019, sp. n.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Wanniyala
Wanniyala mudita

description: Wanniyala mudita sp. n.
Figures 129–131, 156–164, 213
Wanniyala sp. (from Rattota): Huber & Benjamin 2005: 3311, fig. 9.
Diagnosis. Males are distinguished from congeners by details of palp (retrolateral sclerite of procursus with large rounded dorsal process; distinctive processes of palpal trochanter, and short and weakly curved bulbal apophysis; Figs 158–161) and by modification of clypeus (pair of processes connected by protruding arc; Figs 156–157; similar only in W. orientalis). Females are easily distinguished from most known congeners (except W. hakgala, W. orientalis) by shape of epigynum (strongly projecting and pointed in lateral view; Fig. 163); they differ from W. hakgala and W. orientalis by details of internal genitalia (wide anterior ‘valve’; oval pore plates; Figs 164, 213).
Etymology. The species name is derived from the Pāli word muditā, one of the four Buddhist virtues or brahmavihāras (the feeling of joy because others are happy); noun in apposition.
Type material. SRI LANKA: ♂ holotype, ZFMK (Ar 20076), Central Province, Kandy, Dunumadallawa Forest (7.282°N, 80.643°E), 600–680 m a.s.l., 8.iii.2017 (B.A. Huber).
Other material examined. SRI LANKA: 4♂ 3♀ 1 juv., ZFMK (Ar 20077), and 3♀ 4 juvs in pure ethanol, ZFMK (SL109), same data as holotype. 4♀, RMNH, Kandy (7°18’N, 80°38’E; unprecise coordinates!), 600 m a.s.l. (not 1600 m as on label and in Huber & Benjamin 2005), “forest and waterworks, in umbrella web under large tangle”, 7–11.viii.1981 (collector not given) (misidentified as W. hakgala in Huber & Benjamin 2005); 1♂ 1♀, RMNH, same data. 1♂ 4 juvs, ZMUT (AA 3634), Matale District, Rattota [7.515°N, 80.673°E], “in litter of djungle”, 2.ii.1969 (P. Lehtinen).
Description. Male (holotype). MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 1.9, carapace width 0.80. Distance PME- PME 125 µm, diameter PME 100 µm, distance PME-ALE 30 µm; AME absent. Sternum width/length: 0.62/0.46. Leg 1: 13.8 (3.4 + 0.3 + 3.4 + 5.1 + 1.6), tibia 2: 2.0, tibia 3: 1.5, tibia 4: 2.1; tibia 1 L/d: 49.
COLOR (in ethanol). Carapace ochre yellow with median and lateral dark bands; ocular area posteriorly dark; clypeus with pair of dark bands below eye triads; sternum mostly black, with indistinct small triangular light mark anteriorly; legs ochre-yellow, with dark rings on femora (subdistally) and tibiae (proximally and subdistally); abdomen ochre-gray with dark marks dorsally and laterally, ventrally also with dark pattern.
BODY. Habitus as in Fig. 129; ocular area slightly raised; carapace with shallow but distinct median furrow; clypeus with pair of processes connected by protruding arc (Figs 156–157); sternum unmodified.
CHELICERAE. As in Figs 156–157, with pair of small apophyses proximally laterally and pair of long apophyses directed forwards, tips of apophyses distally directed downwards, distance between tips of apophyses: 0.64.
PALPS. In general very similar to known congeners (cf. Figs 150–155); coxa unmodified; trochanter with several distinctive processes (Fig. 158); femur with indistinct small dorsal apophysis proximally; tibia very long (0.86); procursus with several distinctive elements (Figs 160–161); bulb with simple membranous embolus and short, weakly curved and pointed apophysis (Fig. 159).
LEGS. Without spines and curved hairs; with short vertical hairs in higher than usual density on all metatarsi (especially proximally); retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 12%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1; tarsus 1 with ~25 pseudosegments, distally distinct.
Male (variation). Tibia 1 in four other males from type locality: 3.1, 3.2, 3.2, 3.4; in male from Rattota 3.7.
Female. In general similar to male (Figs 130–131) but clypeus unmodified and legs with usual low number of short vertical hairs; two females with entirely black sternum. Tibia 1 in 3 females: 2.6, 2.7, 2.8. Epigynum as in Figs 162–163, strongly protruding and pointed in lateral view; posterior plate apparently reduced(?) to two lateral sclerites mostly hidden behind epigynal plate and poorly visible in ventral view; internal genitalia as in Figs 164, 213, with wide anterior ‘valve’ and pair of oval pore plates.
Natural history. The spiders were found in the leaf litter, with their small webs slightly projecting from under the leaves.
Distribution. Known from two localities in central Sri Lanka (Fig. 226)
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., 2019, The pholcid spiders of Sri Lanka (Araneae: Pholcidae), pp. 1-57 in Zootaxa 4550 (1) on pages 34-35, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4550.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2625030