Mysmenopsis lasrocas Dupérré & Tapia 2020, new species
Creators: name: Dupérré, Nadine
name: Tapia, Elicio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Mysmenidae
Mysmenopsis
Mysmenopsis lasrocas

description: Mysmenopsis lasrocas new species
Figs 51 – 60, map 1 (violet circle).
Material examined. Male holotype and female allotype from Ecuador, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Bosque Las Rocas (-00.46431 -79.19624) 661m, 19 March 2015, in Linothele tsachilas web, N. Dupérré, E.E. Tapia (QCAZ).
Etymology. The specific name is a noun in apposition taken from the type locality, Bosque Las Rocas.
Diagnosis. Male most resemble M. alvaroi n. sp. but are differentiated by their large, rectangular paracymbium prolatero-dorsally (Fig. 57), and by the presence of ten cusps (Fig. 56), while the latter species has a short, triangular paracymbium prolatero-dorsally (Fig. 103) and seven cusps (Fig. 102). Female resemble M. alvaroi n. sp. and M. ischnamigo but can be differentiated by the dorsal plate anterior margin apically with wide, well sclerotized plate-like extension (Fig. 59); while M. alvaroi has narrow well sclerotized plate-like extension (Fig. 106); from M. ischnamigo by their elongated oval spermathecae (Fig. 60), elongated with bulbous end in the latter (Platnick & Shadab 1978, fig. 44).
Description. Male (holotype): Total length: 1.86; carapace length: 0.96; carapace width: 0.78; abdomen length: 0.9. Cephalothorax: carapace dark brown, pear-shaped; suffused with black along pars cephalica and radiating lines (Fig. 51). Sternum dark brown suffused with black; covered with long setae. Clypeus dark brown; low (3x AME). Chelicerae dark orange-brown; promargin with three teeth; retromargin not observed. Eyes: eight, rounded, all approximately equal size; ocular region on protuberance; AME separated by their radius, AME-LE touching; ALE-PLE contiguous, LE-PME separated by their diameter; PME separated by their radius. Abdomen: rounded, dark grey with three white spots in a longitudinal line anteriorly, followed by eight white spots in quadrangle dorsally (Figs 51, 52). Legs: femora I-II dark orange-brown; femora III-IV light orange-brown; tibiae and metatarsi I-IV light orange-brown with faint dark bands apically; tarsi light orange; femur and tibia I enlarged, metatarsus I curved. Legs spination: patellae I-IV with one macroseta; tibia I with two prolateral clasping spurs and one macroseta; metatarsus I curved, row of seven macrosetae prolatero-ventrally and two clasping spurs apically (smaller one not visible on image) (Fig. 54); tibiae I-IV with one macroseta dorso-proximally; tibia II with four macrosetae ventrally. Total length leg I: 3.45 (1.13/0.32/0.94/0.51/0.55). Genitalia: palpal tibia globular; retrolateral ledge short and curved with eight cusps, ventral ledge protruding with two cusps; two retrolateral trichobothria (Fig. 56). Cymbium apically pointed, not excavated; paracymbium large and rectangular prolatero-dorsally (arrow in Fig. 57). Tegulum elongated-oval, pointed apically (Fig. 58). Embolus short, spine-like on a wide, oval base (Figs 56, 58).
Female (allotype): Total length: 2.33; carapace length: 0.93; carapace width: 0.79; abdomen length: 1.4. Cephalothorax (Fig. 51), chelicerae and sternum: as in male Clypeus dark brown; low (3x AME). Eyes: eight, rounded, all approximately of equal size; ocular region on lower protuberance; AME separated by their radius, AME-LE touching; ALE-PLE contiguous, LE-PME separated by their diameter; PME separated by their radius. Abdomen: dark grey with two white spots in a longitudinal line apically, followed by six white spots in a quadrangle (Figs 51, 53). Legs: coloration as in male; femur I enlarged with medial, small tubercle (Fig. 55). Legs spination: patellae I-IV with one macroseta; tibiae I-IV with one macroseta dorso-proximally; tibiae I-II without macrosetae ventrally. Total length leg I: (1.0/0.32/0.81/0.61/0.53). Genitalia: epigynum protruding, anterior epigynal margin not well delimited, posterior epigynal margin pointed, with wide sclerotized plate (Fig. 59). Dorsal epigynal plate with wing-like anterior margin and well sclerotized rim posteriorly (Fig. 60, arrow). Internal genitalia: spermathecae large, oval; copulatory ducts curved, well sclerotized, directed inwards; fertilization ducts large, well sclerotized basally, transparent and curving apically (Fig. 60).
Distribution. Only found at the type locality in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province.
Natural history. Specimens were collected in Linothele tsachilas web, the species inhabit the foothill of the Andean region of Ecuador and was found at 661m in an evergreen foothill forest on the western side of the Andes (BsPn01) (Guevara & Morales 2013).
description: Published as part of Dupérré, Nadine & Tapia, Elicio, 2020, Megadiverse Ecuador: a review of Mysmenopsis (Araneae, Mysmenidae) of Ecuador, with the description of twenty-one new kleptoparasitic spider species, pp. 1-81 in Zootaxa 4761 (1) on pages 21-26, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4761.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3743503