Couranga Gray & Smith 2008, n.gen.
Creators: name: Gray, Michael R.
name: Smith, Helen M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Stiphidiidae
Couranga

description: Couranga n.gen.   
 Type species. Couranga kioloa n.sp.   
 Etymology. The generic name refers to a locality in Royal National Park, New South Wales, and is considered feminine in gender.   
 Diagnosis. Palpal cymbium with a relatively small but well-defined retrolateral flange, margin angled apically; bulb long with a pronounced basal TL; bipartite MA with membraneous to weakly sclerotized processes; processes on anterior conductor margin. RVTA with definite stalk. Epigynum divided, fossae with shallow lateral extensions. Separated from other genera by the shallow lateral extensions of the epigynal fossae; additionally, from Pillara, Borrala, Jamberoo and Asmea by the complex conductor margin, from Elleguna by the absence of a ventral conductor process, and from Karriella by the divided epigynal fossa; separated from Therlinya by the striped carapace.   
 Description. Medium-sized, cribellate spiders (CL 2.24–3.47); with the characters of the subfamily Borralinae. Colour (in alcohol) (Fig. 1a,b,e,f). Carapace amber-brown, eye region dark grey with eyes surrounded by black pigment; a pair of wide, variably pigmented dark grey stripes run midlaterally back from the eye region to coalesce and terminate at or just behind the fovea; thoracic area with narrow, dark grey, marginal stripes. Mouthparts dark brown. Legs with distinct grey-brown bands on femora and tibiae; male metatarsi and tarsi unicolorous, orange brown to light grey brown. Dorsal abdomen patterned in greyish-brown and unpigmented patches with a narrow, grey mid-dorsal anterior stripe, sometimes indistinct, and 4–5 chevrons posteriorly; lateral abdomen with a mosaic of darker and lighter patches; venter grey-brown with several more or less paired pale patches centrally and a pair of pale stripes laterally.   
 Carapace. Profile highest at fovea in male; in female gently arched, often flattish from mid-caput to fovea (Fig. 1c,d). Foveal slit moderately long and deep, curving down onto concave rear slope of carapace. Clypeus about 2× width of an AME. Cheliceral/palpal stridulatory organ absent. Eyes eight, relatively large (cf. Therlinya); grate-shaped tapeta in posterior eyes; EGW 0.70–0.80× width of caput; AME largest or subequal to PME: AME≥PME>PLE≥ALE. MOQ almost square, slightly narrower anteriorly.   
 Legs. 1423. Male metatarsus II with middle to distal part weakly bowed (dorsally concave) and dorsoventrally flattened; less evident on metatarsus I. Spines: Leg tibiae with 0–2 ventral apical spines; metatarsi with distal whorl of 5 spines. Representative leg spination (C. kioloa): Male (KS74065)—I: femur d122, p011; tibia d0010, v221, p111, r1010; metatarsus d202, v201, p0101, r0101; II: femur d122, p0111; tibia d0010, v221, p111, r1010; metatarsus d202, v201, p0101, r0101; III: femur d122, p0111; patella d001; tibia d1010, v122, p1010, r0110; metatarsus d202, v221, p0101, r0101; IV: femur d112, p001; tibia d1010, v112, p0101, r01010; metatarsus d212, v221, p0101, r001. Female (KS74066)—I: femur d112, p011; tibia d001(small), v220, p111, r1010; metatarsus d002, v221, p0101, r0101; II: femur d122, p0111; tibia d0010, v220, p111, r1010; metatarsus d102, v221, p0101, r0101; III: femur d122, p0101; patella d101; tibia d1010, v011(111), p0101, r01010; metatarsus d202, v2021, p0101, r0101; IV: femur d112, p001; patella d001; tibia d1010, v112, p0101, r01010; metatarsus d2012, v221, p0101, r001. Three tarsal claws: superior 9–10 teeth, inferior 2–3 teeth. Female palpal tarsi spinose; palpal claw with 11–12 teeth. Trichobothria in single row of 5–6 on both tarsi and metatarsi.   
 Male palp (Figs 2a–d, 6a,b). Cymbium with a coniform apex with 3 bristle-like spines; retrolateral flange well defined, with apical margin offset at c. 90° to cymbium. Bulb much longer than wide. Tegulum with a large, basal TL, strongly offset from base of embolus. Sperm duct visible on the basal tegulum as a thick, upright S-shaped loop. T-shaped conductor with anterior margin modified (rather than uniformly curved)—prolaterally thickened with an apically notched process arising centrally, and a retrolateral “crested” spine-like conductor apex curving ventrally (Figs 2a,b, 6a). Embolus arising prolaterally from a wide base, curving through less than 180° as a gradually tapering rod with a single sub-distal barb and a blunt apex resting within the sub-apical conductor groove (Fig. 2b). Tegular window prolateral, of small to moderate size. MA bipartite: medial process small, membraneous; lateral process a thin, membraneous or weakly sclerotized lamina (Figs 6a,b, 7a,b). Tibia about as long as wide, with 3 strong prolateral to dorsal bristles and two distal apophyses: RVTA with a short to moderate length stalk and an ovoid, blunt, beak-like head; RDTA a thick hooked or spine-like process. Patella about as long as wide with a dorsal bristle.   
 Epigynum (Fig. 6c,d). Paired fossae separated by a moderately wide septum; fossae shallow, extended laterally and narrowed centrally (sometimes almost “dumbbell-shaped”— Fig. 7c). Posterior to fossae a pair of low cuticular mounds overlie the spermathecae (visible through cuticle) (Fig. 6c). Copulatory ducts open anterolaterally adjacent to septum (fossae and openings sometimes obscured by mating plug). Internal genitalia simple, with a pair of very short, broad copulatory ducts curving back to enter the spermathecae, where they equal its width; spermathecae oblong-globose and adjacent, placed immediately behind the fossa.   
 Spinnerets. Cribellar plate with each field c. 3.0× as wide as long and separated by a wide seam (about 0.5× a field width). Spigots (female, KS62178): ALS: 2 MAP spigots, mesal, adjacent, unequal; c. 35 piriform spigots; PMS: 1 mAP with 2–3 fused paracribellar bases (each with c. 6 to 8 spigots) grouped anteroectally around it; 5 aciniform spigots (1 anterior, rest distributed); 1 cylindrical spigot, ectal; PLS: c. 11 aciniform spigots, distributed; 1 modified PLS spigot, subapical, flanked by 3 paracribellar spigots, all free; 2 cylindrical spigots (1 basal, 1 central).   
 Included species. Couranga kioloa n.sp., C. diehappy n.sp.   
 Remarks. These spiders are distributed from southeastern NSW to southeastern Queensland; the two species overlap widely in the central–northeastern region of NSW. Modification of the anterior conductor margin is shared with Karriella and Elleguna, although the structural details differ, especially in the latter genus. Epigynal plugs, which may fill the fossae, are frequently found in both species.
description: Published as part of Gray, Michael R. & Smith, Helen M., 2008, A New Subfamily of Spiders with Grate-shaped Tapeta from Australia and Papua New Guinea (Araneae: Stiphidiidae: Borralinae), pp. 13-44 in Records of the Australian Museum 60 (1) on page 22, DOI: 10.3853/j.0067-1975.60.2008.1493, http://zenodo.org/record/5239981