Crossopriza sanaa Huber 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Crossopriza
Crossopriza sanaa

description: Crossopriza sanaa sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: BD71FF3D-A3B9-4830-ACCC-A1DB61C7BAD6
Figs 353A, 643–663
Crossopriza pristina (misidentification) – Deeleman-Reinhold & van Harten 2001: 195 (part; see Remark below), figs 1–4, 7–9.
Remark
The redescription of C. pristina in Deeleman-Reinhold & van Harten (2001) is based largely on specimens from Sana’a that are here identified as C. sanaa sp. nov. However, in their “Studied material” section
they also list specimens from Khamis Bani Sa’d and Little Aden. These represent a different species, C. manakhah sp. nov. Most of the figures in Deeleman-Reinhold & van Harten (2001) that are supposed to represent C. pristina do in fact represent C. sanaa sp. nov. The only exception is their figure 10, which is copied from Denis (1945), and which Denis thought represented C. semicaudata (which is also wrong).
Diagnosis
Distinguished from known congeners by details of male palp (Figs 646–651; procursus with strong ventral sclerite, distal bulbal sclerite with pointed dorsal and ventral tips and two prolateral apophyses), and by female genitalia (Figs 654–663; median ridge forming a ‘T’); from many congeners also by male chelicerae (Figs 652–653; relatively small apophyses pointing toward median line, no lateral processes).
Etymology
The species name refers to the type locality; noun in apposition.
Type material
Holotype YEMEN • ♂; Sana’a; 15.350° N, 44.217° E; Jun. 1998; A. van Harten leg.; NMNL ARA 15023.
Other material examined
YEMEN • 3 ♂♂; Sana’a, Plant Protection Department; 15.350° N, 44.217° E; 19 May 1999; NMNL ARA 15213 • 3 ♀♀; same locality as for preceding; Dec. 1997; A. van Harten leg.; NMNL ARA 15215 • 5 ♀♀; same locality as for preceding; Jan. 1998; A. van Harten leg.; NMNL ARA 15214 • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; same locality as for preceding; Feb. 1998; A. van Harten leg.; MRAC 214308 • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; near Sana’a, “564”; 3 Dec. 1998; A. van Harten leg.; NMNL.
Description
Male (holotype)
MEASUREMENTS. Total length 4.2, carapace width 1.6. Distance PME–PME 120 µm; diameter PME 105 × 120 µm; distance PME–ALE 40 µm; diameter AME 90 µm; distance AME–AME 40 µm. Leg 1: 32.9 (9.6 + 0.7 + 9.1 + 11.4 + 2.1), tibia 2: 6.4, tibia 3: 4.9, tibia 4: 5.6; tibia 1 L/d: 52; femora 1–4 diameters: 0.26, 0.24, 0.24, 0.24.
COLOR (in ethanol). Carapace ochre-yellow, median pit and posterior part of ocular area light brown; sternum mostly dark brown, laterally lighter; legs ochre-yellow, without darker rings, with elongate black marks on femora and tibiae; abdomen pale gray, with few indistinct dark marks dorsally, ventrally with darker marks near pedicel and near spinnerets and three indistinct longitudinal bands behind gonopore.
BODY. Habitus similar to C. ghul sp. nov. and C. sahtan sp. nov. (cf. Figs 391, 481). Ocular area slightly raised. Wide and deep thoracic pit and pair of furrows diverging from pit toward posterior margin. Clypeus unmodified but rim more strongly sclerotized than in female. Sternum wider than long (1.15/0.75), unmodified. Abdomen dorso-posteriorly slightly angular.
CHELICERAE. As in Figs 652–653, with pair of converging apophyses close to median line, each with one strong modified (cone-shaped) hair at tip, distance between tips of modified hairs 80 µm; with very fine stridulatory ridges and pair of low but dark frontal lateral humps.
PALPS. As in Figs 643–645; coxa with very low rounded retrolateral hump; trochanter barely modified; femur proximally with prolateral stridulatory pick (modified hair), without retrolateral process, with indistinct transversal retrolateral line, without dorsal process; distally widened, with low ventral protrusion; femur-patella joints close together and shifted towards prolateral; tibia large relative to femur; tibia-tarsus joints shifted towards retrolateral; procursus (Figs 646–648) proximally with strong prolateral hump with many hairs, dorsal hairs barely curved, procursus tip with strong ventral sclerite, rounded prolateral lamella, and further distinctive partly membranous elements; genital bulb (Figs 649– 651) with simple basal sclerite connected to distal (main) sclerite, sperm duct opening not seen; distal
sclerite with retrolateral ridge, two distinctive processes pointing in opposite directions and pair of distinctive prolateral apophyses.
LEGS. Femur 1 with single row of ~20 ventral spines, also femur 2 distally with ~10 stronger hairs in one ventral row; without curved hairs; few vertical hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 4%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1, present on other leg tibiae; tarsi without regular pseudosegments but with indistinct platelets.
Male (variation)
Tibia 1 in five males (incl. holotype): 8.9–11.0 (mean 9.6). Ventral dark band on abdomen variably complete (cf. female, Figs 656, 658).
Female
In general similar to male but without spines on legs, apparently without (or with extremely fine) stridulatory files on chelicerae, and with stridulatory organ consisting of pair of weakly sclerotized but distinct processes posteriorly on carapace and pair of light brown plates anteriorly on abdomen (Fig. 660). Tibia 1 in eight females: 8.1–10.4 (mean 9.4). Epigynum as in Figs 656–659, main epigynal plate triangular, weakly protruding, with pockets very close together on both sides of median ridge (distance ~45 µm); internal arcs and median anterior structure variably visible in uncleared specimens; posterior plate short but wide, simple; with pair of small brown plates in front of epigynum, not elevated. Internal genitalia (Figs 654–655, 661–663) with pair of elongate pore plates converging and narrowing anteriorly, ventral arc with distinctive median cleft and ventral median process (pocket?).
Distribution
Known from type locality only (Yemen, Sana’a) (Fig. 353A).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., 2022, Revisions of Holocnemus and Crossopriza: the spotted-leg clade of Smeringopinae (Araneae, Pholcidae), pp. 1-241 in European Journal of Taxonomy 795 (1) on pages 164-168, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.795.1663, http://zenodo.org/record/6299150