Tolteca huahua Huber & Meng & Valdez-Mondragón & Král & Ávila Herrera & Carvalho 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Meng, Guanliang
name: Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro
name: Král, Jiří
name: Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M.
name: Carvalho, Leonardo S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Tolteca
Tolteca huahua

description: Tolteca huahua Huber sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: DE7A2222-3EA8-49E2-8BA1-FEBC61571376
Figs 36I–J, 44G–I, 49, 55D
Diagnosis
Distinguished from known congeners by the combination of: male genital bulb without dorsal ridge (unlike T. jalisco); procursus tip gradually narrowing (Fig. 44I; unlike T. hesperia and T. sinnombre sp. nov.); male cheliceral apophyses close together (Fig. 44G; distance between tips ~40 µm, similar to T. oaxaca sp. nov.), in lateral view with small angle against distal-frontal face of chelicera (Fig. 44H; unlike T. hesperia; not checked in T. jalisco); main epigynal plate crescent-shaped (Fig. 49A, C; rather than band-like as in T. hesperia and T. jalisco); sacs in female internal genitalia ~40–50 µm long (Figs 49G, 55D; i.e., longer than in T. jalisco and T. oaxaca, shorter than in T. sinnombre).
Etymology
The species name is derived from the type locality; noun in apposition.
Type material
Holotype MEXICO – Michoacán • ♂; ~ 20 km W of Huahua; 18.2346° N, 103.2020°W; 205 m a.s.l.; 5 Oct. 2019; B.A. Huber and A. Valdez-Mondragón leg.; LATLAX.
Paratypes MEXICO – Michoacán • 1 ♂; same collection data as for holotype; ZFMK Ar 23957 • 3 ♂♂, 9 ♀♀, 2 juvs; same collection data as for holotype; LATLAX.
Other material examined
MEXICO – Michoacán • 3 ♀♀, 2 ♀♀ prosomata (abdomens transferred to ZFMK Ar 23957), 5 juvs, in pure ethanol; same collection data as for holotype; ZFMK Mex231 • 1 ♀, 2 juvs, in pure ethanol; ~ 4 km W of Huahua; 18.1972° N, 103.0449° W; 40 m a.s.l.; 5 Oct. 2019; B.A. Huber and A. Valdez-Mondragón leg.; ZFMK Mex 229.
Description
Male (holotype)
MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 1.10, carapace width 0.46. Distance PME-PME 40 µm; diameter PME 40 µm; distance PME-ALE 20 µm; distance AME-AME 10 µm; diameter AME 25 µm. Leg 1: 1.89 (0.50 + 0.17 + 0.47 + 0.47 + 0.28), tibia 2: 0.37, tibia 3: 0.35, tibia 4: 0.60; tibia 1 L/d: 7; diameters of leg femora 0.10, of leg tibiae 0.07.
COLOUR (in ethanol). Prosoma and legs monochromous ochre-yellow; abdomen slightly darker ochre-grey, with very indistinct large dorsal marks.
BODY (Fig. 36I). Ocular area barely raised. Carapace without thoracic groove (very low indentation visible in frontal view only). Clypeus unmodified, short (clypeus rim to ALE 150 µm). Sternum wider than long (0.34/0.26), with pair of small but distinct anterior processes (~50 µm diameter at basis, ~50 µm long) near coxae 1. Abdomen globular.
CHELICERAE (Fig. 44G–H). With pair of frontal apophyses pointing downwards, distance between tips: 50 µm; without stridulatory files.
PALPS. In general possibly indistinguishable from congeners (cf. Figs 37, 50); coxa unmodified; trochanter without process; femur proximally without process, distally widened but simple, slightly curved towards dorsal; femur-patella joints very slightly shifted toward prolateral side; tibia very short, with two trichobothria; tibia-tarsus joints not shifted to one side; procursus very simple (Fig. 44I), with distal ventral process; genital bulb large, complex, in light microscope possibly indistinguishable from congeners (cf. Figs 38D–F, 51D–F).
LEGS. Without spines and curved hairs; with slightly increased density of short vertical hairs on tibia 1 (barely visible in dissecting microscope); retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 63%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1; tarsus 1 with four pseudosegments, all fairly distinct.
Variation (male)
Tibia 1 in five males (incl. holotype): 0.47–0.55 (mean 0.50).
Female
In general, similar to male (Fig. 36J) but sternum without pair of anterior humps; tibia 1 not with increased density of short vertical hairs. Total body length: ~1.20; tibia 1 in 12 females: 0.43–0.51 (mean 0.47). Epigynum (Fig. 49A–D) with short crescent-shaped anterior plate slightly protruding in lateral view; posterior plate wide, median part slightly protruding anteriorly. With distinct knob between epigynum and pedicel. Internal genitalia (Fig. 49E–G) with pair of strong transversal sclerites, pair of distinct sacs (receptacles?), without (or with very small?) pore plates.
Distribution
Known from two neighbouring localities in Mexico, Michoacán (Fig. 35).
Natural history
At the type locality, a low roadside forest, Tolteca was only found in rather dry leaf litter, while more humid litter contained different species of Pholcidae (Modisimus sp.; Anopsicus sp.; Physocyclus lautus Gertsch, 1971). At the second locality, Tolteca was only found in the dry leaf litter of a sun-exposed part of the forest. In the leaf litter of the neighbouring, more humid part of the forest, four other species of Pholcidae were found (Anopsicus sp.; Modisimus spp.).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Meng, Guanliang, Valdez-Mondragón, Alejandro, Král, Jiří, Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M. & Carvalho, Leonardo S., 2023, Short-legged daddy-long-leg spiders in North America: the genera Pholcophora and Tolteca (Araneae, Pholcidae), pp. 1-89 in European Journal of Taxonomy 880 (1) on pages 65-67, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.880.2173, http://zenodo.org/record/8155472