Agraecina rutilia Simon 1897, new combination
Creators: name: Bosselaers, Jan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Liocranidae
Agraecina
Agraecina rutilia

description: Agraecina rutilia (Simon, 1897) new combination
Figs. 3 A, B; 2 E; 8 C.
Apostenus rutilius Simon, 1897b: 498.
Type material. Holotype female, " Ap. rutilius E.S. Freetown ", Sierra Leone [MNHN 8149].
Other material examined. 1 ♀, Sierra Leone, Freetown, Mt. Aureol, September 1976, D. Olu-Pitt leg. [MRAC 148.466].
Diagnosis. A. rutilia differs from the other four Agraecina species known by the long, parallel, closely adjacent ID which are curled and connected to small, clearly defined subglobular ST1 and ST2 at their posterior and anterior ends, respectively.
Description. Male unknown.
Female (holotype). Total length 3.68. Carapace length 1.47, w 1.10, pale ochre with dark striae radiating from fovea. Fovea brown, pronounced, length 0.24, anterior end 0.97 from front end of carapace. Both eye rows procurved from front and recurved from above. AER w 0.32, PER w 0.46, four straight hairs in front of AER. All eyes subequal, except AME whose diameter is 1/3 of diameter of others. AME separated by a distance equal to their diameter, and separated from ALE by 1/2 of AME diameter. PE separated by slightly less than their diameter, PME slightly closer to PLE than to each other. MOQ depth 0.16, anterior w 0.12, posterior w 0.24. Clypeus slightly larger than diameter of AME, chilum absent. Chelicerae yellow, with three teeth along promarginal cheliceral rim, largest one in the middle and smallest one furthest from fang base, and two teeth on retromarginal rim, smallest one closest to fang base. A large curved seta in front of fang base. Sternum yellow, smooth, shield-shaped, length 0.79, w 0.71. No PCT, no ICS, PLB inconspicuous and isolated. Labium slightly wider than long. Endites long, parallel sided, not notched, no apical hair tuft. Serrula present. Abdomen do unicolorous grey, sparsely covered with thin brown hairs, ve pale greyish white. ALS conical, with short terminal article, PMS short, triangular, with three large cylindrical gland spigots, PLS subcylindrical, stout, separated by a distance equal to their length. Trochanters notched, retrocoxal hymen small, hyaline, feathery hairs present on legs. Legs unicolorous yellow, leg formula 4123, leg length I 3.81 II 3.66 III 3.34 IV 4.68. No vt preening brush on mt III or IV. Tarsi without claw tufts or tenent hairs, claws with 5–10 teeth. Leg spination (Fig. 2 E) fe: I pl 0-0-1 do 1-1-1; II pl 0-0-1 do 1-1-1; III do 1-1-3; IV do 1-1-3; pa: III dt 1; IV dt 1; ti: I plv 1-1-0 rlv 1-1-0; II rlv 1-1-0; III pl 1-1-0 do 1-1-0 rl 1-1-0 plv 1-1-1 rlv 0-1-1; IV pl 1- 1-0 do 1-0-1 rl 1-1-0 plv 1-1-1 rlv 0-1-1; mt: I plv 1-1-0 rlv 1-1-0; II plv 1-1-0 rlv 1-1-0; III pl 0-2-2 rl 0-2-2 plv 1-1-1 rlv 1-1-1; IV pl 1-2-2 rl 1-2-2 plv 1-1-0 rlv 1-1-0 vts 1.
Epigyne (Fig. 3 A) only weakly sclerotised, semitransparent, without a clear median septum. CO anterior. Vulva (Fig. 3 B) with anterior CO, long, parallel, closely adjacent ID curled at both ends. Anteriorly, the ID are connected to small, subglobular ST2, posteriorly to almost isodiametric ST1.
Discussion. Due to its notched trochanters, long and narrow carapace, ti I, mt I and mt II with two ve spine pairs, ti II with only two rlv spines, as well as its vulvar structure and an epigyne without a clear median septum, A. rutilia does not belong in Apostenus. However, all these characters, especially the leg spination (compare Figs. 2 E and 2 F), are compatible with a place in the genus Agraecina (Fig. 8 D). Based on vulvar structure, A. rutilia displays the highest level of vulvar complexity of all known Agraecina species. One can hypothesise a series starting with the simple vulva of A. canariensis and A. hodna, where the wide, divergent ID are gradually merging into inconspicuous ST1 and ST2 at their anterior and posterior ends, respectively, resulting in a dumbbell shape (Wunderlich 1992; Bosmans 1999), leading over the terminally curled and enlarged combination of ID and ST1-ST 2 in A. cristiani and A. lineata (Weiss & Sarbu 1994; Bosmans 1999) to the terminally curled ID connected to clearly defined ST1 and ST2 of A. rutilia.
Distribution. Sierra Leone.
description: Published as part of Bosselaers, Jan, 2009, Studies in Liocranidae (Araneae): redescriptions and transfers in Apostenus Westring and Brachyanillus Simon, as well as description of a new genus, pp. 37-55 in Zootaxa 2141 on pages 43-46, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.188586