Neischnocolus cisnerosi Peñaherrera-R & Guerrero-Campoverde & León-E & Pinos-Sánchez & Falcón-Reibán 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Peñaherrera-R, Pedro
name: Guerrero-Campoverde, Ariel
name: León-E, Roberto J.
name: Pinos-Sánchez, Andrés
name: Falcón-Reibán, José M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Theraphosidae
Neischnocolus
Neischnocolus cisnerosi

description: Neischnocolus cisnerosi sp. nov.
Figures 2C, D; 3B; 4C, D; 5, 6, 7
Type material. Holotype male, Ecuador, province of Santo Domingo de Los Tsachilas, parish of Santo Domingo, Reserva Otongachi— Fundación Otonga, Wet Forest, (- 0.320000 º S, - 78.950000º W, 947m), 6 October 2017, F. Velasquez. Museo de Zoología, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador (ZSFQ-i11100).
Etymology.— The specific epithet is a patronym for our mentor Diego Francisco Cisneros-Heredia, an amazing scientist, fantastic friend, and awe-inspiring teacher, who has always been at the start of our professional journeys, and encouraged us to pursue our epistemophilia. Always open to the reception of junior students and fellow researchers at IBIOTROP (Instituto de Biodiversidad Tropical USFQ), Diego has consistently offered and supported unique and eccentric projects for students and researchers alike. We dedicate this species to his impact, past, present, and future on our scientific endeavours through life.
Diagnosis.— Males differ from those of other species by the morphology of the male palpal organ, having a R keel, similar to N. iquitos; but it can be easily differentiated by the presence of a PAC keel, PS and PI keels non-serrated, and disperse MDGA rounded-shaped over ventral surface; whereas N. iquitos have a PI keel proximally serrated, PAC keel and MDGA absent in N. iquitos (Kaderka, 2020).
Description.— Male holotype (ZSFQ-i11100) (Fig. 2C, D): Total length: 14.23. Carapace length: 8.52, width: 7.57. Abdomen: length: 5.73, width: 5.52. Eyes: anterior and posterior eye rows slightly recurved, AME: 0.30, ALE: 0.24, PME: 0.33, PLE: 0.14, AME-AME: 0.35, AME-ALE: 0.17, PME-PME: 0.90, PME-PLE: 0.17, ALE-PLE: 0.36, OQ length: 1.21, width: 1.87, clypeus: 0.21. Fovea deep and straight. Chelicerae: 9 promarginal teeth and 11 denticles. Labium: length: 0.71, width: 0.90, with 9 cuspules. Maxillae: 68–71 cuspules on inner third Sternum: length: 3.71, width: 3.16. Legs: formula 4123, total length: I 32.57, II 30.91, III 26.33, IV 33.76; leg (femur/patella/ tibia/metatarsus/tarsus) and pedipalp (femur/patella/tibia/cymbium) articles length: I 9.02/4.07/8.32/6.75/4.41, II 8.63/3.96/8.31/5.74/4.27, III 7.71/3.13/647/5.67/3.35, IV 9.03/3.57/7.88/9.28/4.00, palp 4.77/2.73/4.42/1.75. Tibia I with paired distal proventral apophyses with one short and wide spine on inner side of each branch (Fig. 3B). Flexion of metatarsus retrolateral with respect to tibial apophyses. Palpal tibia with two distal conical processes, both processes point towards each other (Fig. 4C, D). Scopula: tarsi I–II densely scopulated, tarsi III–IV slightly scopulated, tarsi I–II distally divided by rhomboidal group of setae, tarsi III fully divided by straight strip of longer thicker setae, tarsi IV fully divided by wide strip of longer thicker setae. Metatarsal scopula: I 80%, II 55%, III 25%, IV 0%. Legs and pedipalp spination: Femora and patellae I–IV and palp 0. Tibiae I 1r; II 2V, 1P; III 2V, 2P; IV 3V, 1P, 1R; palp 0. Metatarsi I 2V; II 2V, 2R; III 4V, 2P, 2R; IV 6V, 1P, 5R. Tarsi I–IV and palp 0. Palpal bulb (Fig. 5): Bent embolus almost perpendicular to palpal organ axis, short and slightly curved apical portion of the palpal organ, PI keel well developed and longer than PS keel, PAC keel very short and weakly developed, R keel short and well developed, PS and PI keels non-serrated, PS keel short than P keel, A keel present, developed TH, disperse MDGA rounded-shaped over distal ventral surface.
Colour.— In vivo (Fig. 6), carapace slightly reddish; carapace, chelicerae, abdomen and legs densely covered by small pale yellowish setae, almost metallic, and dispersed long reddish setae; abdomen with a small grey dot above the urticating setae patch; spinnerets overall pale orange (Velásquez, pers. comm., 25/08/2023). Colour after five years in preservative similar to colour in life, except setae on carapace are golden (Fig. 2C, D).
Females: Unknown.
Distribution.— Known only from type locality (Fig. 7). The specimen was collected in the northern foothill evergreen forest of western slope of the Andean Cordillera (sensu Mae, 2013); within the Western Province (sensu Morrone, 2014).
Remarks.— The left palpal bulb of male holotype shows deformities so it was not considered for the description of this species; having the middle part of the bulb more bent and irregular, from the retrolateral view the superior area has the appearance of a horizontal fold.
description: Published as part of Peñaherrera-R, Pedro, Guerrero-Campoverde, Ariel, León-E, Roberto J., Pinos-Sánchez, Andrés & Falcón-Reibán, José M., 2023, Two new Species of Neischnocolus Petrunkevitch, 1925 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) from Eastern and Western Ecuador, pp. 483-493 in Zootaxa 5351 (4) on pages 487-491, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5351.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/8392081