Buitinga batwa Bernhard A. Huber & Charles M. Warui 2012, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Bernhard A. Huber
name: Charles M. Warui
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Buitinga
Buitinga batwa

description: Buitinga batwa sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C456910B-9E7B-4872-830B-87F240C313E3
Figs 13, 36-39, 81-86
Buitinga Uga 61: Dimitrov, Astrin & Huber 2012 (DNA sequence data).
Diagnosis
Easily distinguished from known congeners by extremely long male cheliceral apophyses (Figs 83, 84); from similar B. buhoma Huber, 2003 also by wider epigynal scape and median pocket in internal female genitalia (Figs 65, 85), and by details of male palp (shape of bulbal apophysis, two small projections on bulb apart from apophysis and embolus, shapes of distal structures of procursus; Figs 81, 82).
Etymology
The species is named after the Batwa pygmies of south-western Uganda; noun in apposition.
Type material
Holotype
♂, in ZFMK (Ar 8743).
Paratypes
3 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀, in ZFMK (Ar 8744).
Type locality
UGANDA, Kisoro District, Mgahinga Gorilla N.P., gorge (1°22.9’S, 29°35.8-36.0’E), 2900-3000 m a.s.l., 25 Nov. 2010 (B.A. Huber).
Other material examined
UGANDA: Western Region: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, 1 juv. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Uga 147), Kisoro District, Mgahinga Gorilla N.P., gorge, same data as types above; 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, in ZFMK (Ar 8745), Mgahinga Gorilla N.P., bamboo forest (~1°22.0-22.3’S, 29°36.3-36.9’E), 2500-2600 m a.s.l., 25 Nov. 2010 (B.A. Huber); 2 ♂♂, 1 juv. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Uga 150), same data; 3 ♂♂, in ZFMK (Ar 8746), Kisoro District, between Nyakabande and Muko, roadside forest (1°15.2’S, 29°47.6’E), 2260 m a.s.l., 26 Nov. 2010 (B.A. Huber).
Description
Male (holotype)
MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 2.7, carapace width 1.0. Leg 1: 19.5 (4.6 + 0.4 + 4.8 + 7.3 + 2.4), tibia 2: 2.8, tibia 3: 2.2, tibia 4: 2.9; tibia 1 L/d: 54. Distance PME-PME 185 µm, diameter PME 115 µm, distance PME-ALE 45 µm, no AME.
COLOR. Carapace pale ochre-yellow with black lateral marks, ocular area and clypeus dark brown to black, sternum black with slightly lighter mark behind labium; legs ochre-yellow, darker rings on femora (subdistally) and tibiae (proximally and subdistally); abdomen pale grey with distinctive black pattern.
BODY. Habitus as in Figs 36-38; ocular area slightly elevated; only frontally shallow thoracic furrow; clypeus unmodified. Chelicerae as in Figs 83 and 84, with proximal lateral apophyses, pair of extremely long frontal apophyses, each provided with several strong claw-shaped hairs proximo-dorsally and about four modified hairs distally; without further pair of frontal apophyses near laminae. Sternum wider than long (0.70/0.57), unmodified.
PALPS. In general very similar B. buhoma Huber, 2003 (cf. figs 113 and 114 in Huber 2003a) but coxa with prominent ventral apophysis distally and tibia slightly longer; bulb with four projections: weakly sclerotized embolus, hooked apophysis with subdistal sclerotized ridge, small projection at basis of apophysis (arrow in Fig. 82), and pointed cone-shaped process (arrow in Fig. 81); procursus with large cushion-like structure retrolaterally, prolateral hinged process, complex distally.
LEGS. Without spines and curved hairs, few vertical hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 10%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1, present on other tibiae; tarsus 1 with ~30 pseudosegments.
VARIATION. Tibia 1 in 9 other males: 4.4-5.2 (mean 4.7).
Female
In general similar to male but triads closer together (distance PME-PME 150 µm). Tibia 1 in 5 females: 3.5-3.9 (mean 3.75). Epigynum a simple plate with wide straight scape in anterior position (Figs 64, 85), with distinctive internal sclerotized pocket (arrow in Fig. 86) and large pore plates (Figs 65, 86).
Distribution
Known from southwestern Uganda only (Fig. 18).
description: Published as part of Bernhard A. Huber & Charles M. Warui, 2012, East African pholcid spiders: an overview, with descriptions of eight new species (Araneae, Pholcidae), pp. 1-44 in European Journal of Taxonomy 29 (29) on pages 24-27, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2012.29, http://zenodo.org/record/1406636