Smeringopina ogooue Huber, 2013, new species
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Smeringopina
Smeringopina ogooue

description: Smeringopina ogooue new species
Figs. 8–9, 479–483, 513–514, 527, 553–568
Type. ♂ holotype from Gabon, Ogooué-Lolo, near Moudouma (1°23.5’S, 12°09.6’E), 475 m a.s.l., forest along brook, 24.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), in ZFMK (Ar 10264).
Other material examined. GABON: Ogooué-Lolo: near Moudouma: same data as holotype, 10♂ 5♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10265); same data, 2 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 159). Forest near Lastoursville (0°48.0’S, 12°44.4’E), 300 m a.s.l., 21.viii.2011 (B.A. Huber), 2♂ 4♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10266); same data, 1 juv. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 220). Grotte de Pahon Pira near Lastoursville (0°48.8’S, 12°45.1’E), 360 m a.s.l., in cave and near entrance, 22.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 6♂ 17♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10267); same data, 1 juv. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 162). Forest at brook near Lastoursville, near Grotte de Pahon Pira (0°48.8’S, 12°45.2’E), 290 m a.s.l., 22.–23.viii.2011 (B.A. Huber), 1♂ 3♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10268). Haut Ogooué: degraded forest at hill near Mouanda (1°34.3’S, 13°11.0’E), 460 m a.s.l., 20.viii.2011 (B.A. Huber), 1♂ in ZFMK (Ar 10269); same data, 1 juv. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 163). Forest at Lékoni River (1°10.7’S, 13°32.3’E), 305 m a.s.l., 18.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 3♂ 3♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10270); same data, 4 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 215). Forest near Bongoville (1°36.7’S, 13°57.4’E), 600–650 m a.s.l., 20.viii.2011 (B.A. Huber), 2♂ 2♀ 1 juv. in ZFMK (Ar 10271); same data, 1♀ 2 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 205). Ogooué-Ivindo: near Mohoba Mozeye (0°16.8’N, 13°20.9’E), 510 m a.s.l., forest along road, 17.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 4♂ 2♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10272); same data, 2 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 168). Monts de Belinga, forest near Mayebout (1°06.7’N, 13°06.6’E), 500 m a.s.l., 13.–14.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 2♂ in ZFMK (Ar 10273); Monts de Belinga, Mayebout (1°06.9’N, 13°06.4’E), 500 m a.s.l., in building, 13.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 1♂ in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 226). Monts de Belinga, NE Makokou (0°47.0’N, 13°08.3’E), 530 m a.s.l., degraded forest along road, 15.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 2♂ 4♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10274); same data, 2♀ 2 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 224). N Tébé (0°02.3’S, 13°40.9’E), 550 m a.s.l., forest along brook, 17.viii.2011 (B.A. & S.R. Huber), 1♂ 2♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10275); same data, 2 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Gab 165).
Etymology. The name is derived from the Ogooué River whose watershed drains nearly the entire country of Gabon; noun in apposition.
Diagnosis. Easily distinguished from similar congeners (large species with long abdomen, cone-shaped modified hairs on male chelicerae, simple unbranched procursus) by distinctive prolatero-ventral process on male palpal femur (Fig. 481); also by shape of procursus (distally not curved toward ventrally; Fig. 554) and male cheliceral armature (cone-shaped hairs small, short distal apophyses with only 1–4 modified hairs each, Fig. 555); female not easily distinguished from similar species (e.g., S. bioko, S. etome).
Male (holotype). Total body length 7.1, carapace width 1.8. Leg 1: 79.7 (18.4 + 0.8 + 18.1 + 39.1 + 3.3), tibia 2: 12.4, tibia 3: 8.4, tibia 4: 10.8; tibia 1 L/d: 105. Distance PME-PME 205 µm, diameter PME 170 µm, distance PME-ALE 70 µm, distance AME-AME 45 µm, diameter AME 160 µm. Carapace ochre-yellow with brown mark posteriorly and brown lateral margins; ocular area posteriorly light brown, clypeus with pair of brown marks at rim, sternum dark brown; legs ochre-yellow, slightly darker rings subdistally on femora and tibiae (indistinct) and in patella area, tips of femora and tibiae whitish; abdomen ochre-gray with distinct black pattern dorsally, laterally, and ventrally. Habitus as in Figs. 479–480, ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with distinct ‘pseudolenses’; clypeus unmodified but with longer than usual hairs; deep thoracic pit and pair of shallow furrows diverging behind pit. Chelicerae as in Fig. 555, with lateral proximal apophyses and short distal apophyses; distal apophyses and frontal cheliceral face provided with several small modified (cone-shaped) hairs (Fig. 562). Palps as in Figs. 481–483; coxa unmodified; trochanter with wide retrolatero-ventral apophysis; femur proximally with ventral sclerotized ridge but without pocket, with long retrolateral apophysis and distinctive prolateral process; prolateral femur-patella joint strongly shifted toward ventrally; tarsus with several strong hairs dorsally; procursus very simple, apparently without hinge between proximal and distal part (Figs. 553–554, 559–560); bulb with widened but weakly sclerotized proximal part of embolus (Figs. 556, 561). Legs without spines and curved hairs, with few vertical hairs, retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 1%; prolateral trichobothrium present on all tibiae; pseudosegments barely visible. ALS with eight spigots each (Figs. 564, 566); gonopore with two epiandrous spigots (Fig. 563).
Variation. Tip of procursus slightly longer in males from near Bongoville. Distal cheliceral apophyses with variable number of cone-shaped hairs (1–4 each). Tibia 1 in 28 other males: 15.1–19.9 (mean 17.2).
Female. In general similar to male; clypeus variably dark (often darker than in males). Tibia 1 in 39 females: 12.5–15.6 (mean 14.0). Epigynum consisting of trapezoidal anterior plate slightly indented between anterior and posterior half and weakly sclerotized medially near posterior rim, and large posterior plate (Figs. 513–514, 557); internal genitalia as in Figs. 527, 558, 565, 568. Spinnerets as in male (Fig. 567).
Natural history. S. ogooue was found in well preserved forests (e.g. near Mohoba Mozeye; near Moudouma) and in disturbed forest patches (e.g. NE of Makokou; near Mouanda). Juveniles often built their webs quite freely among the vegetation but the large webs of adults were mainly built among large tree buttresses; as a result, adult specimens were difficult to find in forests where the large trees were missing (e.g. near Tébé; at Lekoni River). At Mayebout, S. ogooue was found to share the forest with the superficially similar S. mayebout. While S. mayebout was rather found in hollow trees and cavities in the ground, S. ogooue was collected among tree buttresses. Strategies to avoid predation seemed to vary among localities: in the forests near Bongoville and Moudouma, the spiders fled extremely rapidly at the slightest disturbance, making capture very difficult; at the entrance to the Pahon Pira cave near Lastoursville they just vibrated and were easy to catch.
Distribution. Known from several localities in eastern Gabon (Fig. 468).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., 2013, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Guineo-Congolian spider genus Smeringopina Kraus (Araneae, Pholcidae, pp. 1-160 in Zootaxa 3713 (1) on pages 33-35, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3713.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/284803