Smeringopus ruhiza Huber 2012, new species
Creators: name: HUBER, BERNHARD A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Smeringopus
Smeringopus ruhiza

description: Smeringopus ruhiza new species
Figs. 20–21, 26, 34–35, 50–53, 94–99
Type. Male holotype from Uganda, Kabale District, Ruhiza, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (~ 1°02’S, 29°46’E), ~ 2300 m a.s.l., roadcut, 25.ix.1996 (C.E. Griswold), in CAS.
Etymology. The name is a noun in apposition, derived from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Distinguished from similar congeners (other species of the rubrotinctus group) by shapes of procursus and embolus (Figs. 94–97); from most other congeners by long apophyses on male chelicerae (Figs. 26, 98).
Male (holotype). Total body length 5.1, carapace width 1.7. Leg 1: 36.7 (9.3 + 0.6 + 9.3 + 15.2 + 2.3), tibia 2: 6.7, tibia 3: 5.2, tibia 4: 7.6; tibia 1 L/d: 57. Habitus as in Fig. 20. Carapace with wide median and lateral brown bands, clypeus and sternum dark brown, leg femora and tibiae with indistinct subdistal rings, abdomen with indistinct pattern dorsally, with wide dark band divided by two narrow light lines ventrally. Distance PME-PME 175 µm, diameter PME 170 µm, distance PME-ALE 90 µm, distance AME-AME 45 µm, diameter AME 135 µm. Ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with indistinct ‘pseudo-lenses’; deep but small thoracic pit. Chelicerae as in Figs. 26 and 98 (very similar S. rubrotinctus), with pair of long apophyses. Palps as in Figs. 34 and 35, coxa with indistinct bulge, trochanter barely modified, femur with retrolateral indentation but no furrow, without proximal rim and without apophysis, cymbium with projection near tarsal organ, procursus tip with distinctively long ventral apophysis and whitish prolateral process (Figs. 94, 95), bulb with complex embolus with two processes, one with sclerotized teeth, other with membranous tip (Figs. 96, 97). Legs without spines, few vertical hairs, with curved hairs ventrally and dorsally on tibiae and metatarsi 1 and 2, retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 1.5%; prolateral trichobothrium present on tibia 1.
Variation. Tibia 1 in 2 other males: 9.3, 11.1. In the males from Kitahurira and Buhoma the palps are absolutely larger and the sclerotized flaps retrolaterally on the procursus (arrow in Fig. 94) are relatively larger. The shapes of the sclerotized teeth on the large embolar process (Fig. 96) vary slightly.
Female. In general similar to male; tibia 1 in 3 females: 9.7, 10.4, 10.9. Epigynum anterior plate with indentation, without pockets (Figs. 50–52); posterior plate simple, not projecting; internal genitalia as in Figs. 53 and 99.
Distribution. Known from southwestern Uganda and northern Burundi (Fig. 58).
Material examined. UGANDA: Western Region: Kabale District, Ruhiza, Bwindi Impenetrable N.P.: 1♂ holotype above. Rukungiri District, Kitahurira, Bwindi Impenetrable N.P. (~ 0°58’S, 29°41’E), ~ 1740 m a.s.l., roadcuts in forest, 17.–19.ix.1996 (C.E. Griswold, G. Mayoba), 1♂ 1♀ in CAS; same data but 18.–20.ix.1996 (C.E. Griswold), 1♀ in CAS. Kanungu District, Bwindi Impenetrable N.P., waterfall trail near Buhoma (0°59.8’–1°00.2’S, 29°36.9–37.2’E), ~ 1500–1600 m a.s.l., 22.xi.2010 (B.A. Huber), 1♂ 1♀ in ZFMK (Ar 8562); same data, 1♀ in pure ethanol in ZFMK (Uga 125).
BURUNDI: Parc National de la Kibira, Rwegura, Mt. Musumba [~ 2°55’S, 29°31’E], site 6, forest with Carapa grandiflora and Polyscias fulva, 2100 m a.s.l., 25.vii.2008 (N. Benoit), 1♂ in MRAC (226402).
description: Published as part of HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2012, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Afrotropical endemic genus Smeringopus Simon, 1890 (Araneae: Pholcidae), pp. 1-138 in Zootaxa 3461 (1) on pages 22-23, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3461.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6415657