Nerudia rocio Huber & Meng & Král & Ávila Herrera & Izquierdo & Carvalho 2023, SP. NOV.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Meng, Guanliang
name: Král, Jiří
name: Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M.
name: Izquierdo, Matias A.
name: Carvalho, Leonardo S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Nerudia
Nerudia rocio

description: NERUDIA ROCIO HUBER SP. NOV.
(FIGS 19–21)
Z o o b a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n: l s i d: z o o b a n k. o r g: a c t: 9 2 4 5 D 3 B D - 2 2 2 C - 4 C 1 5 - 8 D 9 9 - 7D3CB98F848B.
Diagnosis: Easily distinguished from known congeners by shapes of procursus (Fig. 20A–C; distinctively widened tip); also by shape of embolus (Fig. 20D–F; distally strongly bent towards dorsal), by armature of male chelicerae (Fig. 20G, H; slender frontal apophyses, without stronger hairs), by epigynum and female internal genitalia (Figs 20I, 21; epigynal plate anteriorly narrow with strong transversal ridges; internally apparently without ‘receptacle’), and by indistinct radial marks on carapace in males and females.
Type material: ARGENTINA – San Juan: •♂ holotype; ~ 35 km W Las Flores; 30.3967° S, 69.5576° W; 2910 m a.s.l.; 6 Mar. 2019; B. A. Huber and M. A. Izquierdo leg.; LABRE-Ar 588 • 2 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, paratypes, + 2 juvs; same data as holotype; LABRE-Ar 536.
Other material examined: ARGENTINA – San Juan: • 2 ♀♀, in pure ethanol; same data as holotype; ZFMK Arg 148 (one female abdomen transferred to 80% ethanol, ZFMK Ar 23893) • 1 ♀, in pure ethanol; same data as holotype; LABRE-Ar 543.
558 B. A. HUBER ET AL.
Etymology: The species epithet rocio (rocío is Spanish for ‘dew’) is taken from Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘Poema 12’; noun in apposition.
Description
Male (holotype). Measurements: Total body length 1.60, carapace width 0.73. Distance PME–PME 80 µm; diameter PME 70 µm; distance PME–ALE 30 µm; distance AME–AME 20 µm; diameter AME 50 µm. Leg 1: 8.40 (2.25 + 0.30 + 2.50 + 2.55 + 0.80), tibia 2: 1.85, tibia 3: 1.45, tibia 4: 2.00; tibia 1 L/d: 31.
Colour (in ethanol): Carapace ochre-yellow with indistinct darker (ochre) median mark including ocular area and radial lateral marks; legs monochromous ochre-yellow, without dark rings; abdomen monochromous ochre-grey.
Body: Habitus similar to N. poma (cf. Fig. 1B). Ocular area barely raised. Carapace with indistinct thoracic groove. Clypeus unmodified, only rim slightly more sclerotized. Sternum wider than long (0.52/0.48), with pair of distinct anterior processes near coxae 1. Abdomen globular.
Chelicerae: As in Figure 20G, H; pair of pointed frontal apophyses directed forward and weakly curved downward; stridulatory files on pair of low lateral protrusions.
Palps: As in Figure 19; coxa unmodified; trochanter with indistinct ventral projection; femur cylindrical, slightly widened distally, proximally without retrolateral hump, with prolateral stridulatory pick (modified hair), femur length/width: 1.93; patella short; tibia globular, less strongly widened than in congeners (length/width: 1.17); procursus with distinctive distal widening and proximal dorsal ridge (Fig. 20A–C); genital bulb with simple ventral apophysis, embolus distally strongly bent towards dorsal (Fig. 20D–F).
Legs: Without spines and curved hairs; with vertical hairs in higher density on tibia 1, only proximally on prolateral and retrolateral sides (length ~20 µm; length of dorsal trichobothrium on tibia 1: ~80 µm); retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 66%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1; tarsus 1 with seven to eight pseudosegments, distally distinct.
Variation (male): Tibia 1 in two other males: 2.10, 2.12.
Female (see Note beloae): In general, similar to male but sternum without pair of anterior humps. Tibia 1 in seven females: 1.61–2.00 (mean 1.80). Epigynum (Fig. 21A) anterior plate weakly protruding, anteriorly narrow with strong transversal ridges; posterior plate large, simple. Internal genitalia (Figs 20I, 21B–D) simple, apparently without or with small and indistinct median receptacle.
Distribution: Known from type locality only, in Argentina, San Juan (Fig. 3).
Natural history: The spiders were collected by turning large rocks on an arid hillside (Fig. 45D). They shared the microhabitat with another (undescribed) species of Nerudia (N. ‘Arg23a’), of which only females were collected (see Note below). A third species collected at this locality (possibly N. ola; see Note below) was found closer to the river.
Note: Eighteenfemalespecimensrepresentingthreeputative species of Nerudia were collected at the type locality of this species. Eight specimens share with the male holotype (and male paratypes) the radial marks on the carapace and the relatively long legs. We thus consider these to be conspecific with the holotype.However,this needs confirmation,ideally by collecting males of the other putative species and by barcoding males and females. One female specimen shares with N. ola the shape of the epigynum and is thus tentatively assigned to that species. The remaining nine female specimens have a distinctive epigynum (Fig. 37A) and their separation from N. rocio and N. ola is also supported by COI (Fig. 2). They are thus considered to represent a separate undescribed species, Nerudia ‘Arg23a’ (see Putative further species at the end of the taxonomic section).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Meng, Guanliang, Král, Jiří, Ávila Herrera, Ivalú M., Izquierdo, Matias A. & Carvalho, Leonardo S., 2023, High and dry: integrative taxonomy of the Andean spider genus Nerudia (Araneae: Pholcidae), pp. 534-591 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 198 on pages 556-560, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac100, http://zenodo.org/record/7981762