Priscula bonita Huber & Meng & Dupérré & Astrin & Herrera 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Meng, Guanliang
name: Dupérré, Nadine
name: Astrin, Jonas
name: Herrera, Mauricio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Priscula
Priscula bonita

description: Priscula bonita Huber sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E8DC917E-0778-4C1B-AA97-F59DB99B3A6A
Figs 6C–D, 33–36, 42F–G, 44E
Priscula sp. n. ‘Ecu93’ – Dederichs et al. 2022: 46 (sperm ultrastructure).
Diagnosis
Distinguished from known congeners by details of procursus (Fig. 34A–C; distinctive distal sclerite with two pointed processes; slender proximal part – similar to P. annulipes (Keyserling, 1877) and P. venezuelana), genital bulb (Fig. 34D–F; main bulbal process longer than in most known congeners, with pointed tip), and female internal genitalia (Fig. 35C; pore plates roughly triangular, narrower posteriorly than anteriorly – similar to P. bolivari). From most known congeners in Ecuador (except P. lumbaqui sp. nov.) also by very large male palpal femur (Fig. 33C; 1.7 times longer than palpal tibia; P. lumbaqui: 2.0; other species in Ecuador. 1.1–1.3).
Type material
Holotype ECUADOR – Sucumbíos • ♂; near La Bonita; 0.474° N, 77.558° W; 1870 m a.s.l.; 1 Oct. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg.; humid forest; MECN–ARAC–41–T.
Paratypes ECUADOR – Sucumbíos • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; same collection data as for holotype; MECN–ARAC–42–T, in ZFMK Ar 24104.
Other material examined
ECUADOR – Sucumbíos • 1 ♀, 1 juv. (in pure ethanol); same collection data as for holotype; ZFMK Ecu214 • 1 ♂; between La Bonita and Santa Barbara; 0.6470° N, 77.4910° W; 2720 m a.s.l., 1 Oct. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg.; humid forest; MECN–ARAC–43–T • 1 ♂ (1 palp used for SEM); same collection data as for preceding; MECN–ARAC–44–T, in ZFMK Ar 24105 • 1 ♀, 1 juv. (in pure ethanol); same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK Ecu216. Napo • 1 ♂, 4 ♀♀ (one female used for SEM); Gruta de Los Tayos, in ‘cave’ (canyon); 0.2186° S, 77.7402° W; 1590 m a.s.l.; 29 Sep. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg.; MECN–ARAC–45–T, in ZFMK Ar 24106–07 • 2 ♀♀, 3 juvs (in pure ethanol); same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK Ecu205 • 1 ♀; Antisana N.P.; 0.6409° S, 77.8086° W; 2000 m a.s.l.; 28 Sep. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg.; humid forest; MECN–ARAC–46–T, in ZFMK Ar 24108 • 1 ♀, 1 juv. (in pure ethanol); same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK Ecu201.
Assigned tentatively (see below)
ECUADOR – Napo • 1 ♂ (in pure ethanol); SE Archidona, Rio Hollin; 0.955° S, 77.748° W; 660 m a.s.l.; 29 Nov. 2009; P. Michalik leg.; ZFMK Mich35. Pastaza • 1 ♂, 1 ♀ abdomen; Cavernas del Anzu Forest Reserve, at cave entrance of Cueva Copa del Mundo; 1.4054° S, 78.0433° W; 1140 m a.s.l.; 26 Sep. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg.; MECN–ARAC–47–T, in ZFMK Ar 24109 • 1 ♀ (in pure ethanol; abdomen transferred to ZFMK Ar 24109); same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK Ecu184 • 3 ♀♀ (in pure ethanol); Cavernas del Anzu Forest Reserve; between 1.406° S, 78.043° W and 1.416° S, 78.049° W; 1140–1270 m a.s.l.; 26 Sep. 2021; B.A. Huber and M. Herrera leg., ZFMK Ecu185.
Etymology
The species name is derived from the type locality, noun in apposition.
Description
Male (holotype)
MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 5.2, carapace width 2.1. Distance PME–PME 270 µm; diameter PME 170 µm; distance PME–ALE 180 µm; distance AME–AME 45 µm; diameter AME 45 µm. ALE and PLE larger than PME (diameters 250 µm). Leg 1: 46.1 (11.7 +0.9+11.5 + 18.7 +3.3), tibia 2: 8.1, tibia 3: 5.7, tibia 4: 7.3; tibia 1 L/d: 55.
COLOR (in ethanol). Carapace pale ochre-yellow, with large brown median mark and three pairs of lateral marks, ocular area also brown, clypeus with large brown band narrowing towards chelicerae; sternum light brown with thin darker margins; legs pale ochre, with 3–4 variably distinct dark rings on each femur and tibia; abdomen dorsally and laterally densely covered with black marks, with some small white marks in-between, ventrally with large brown mark in front of gonopore and light brown sclerite in front of spinnerets.
BODY. Habitus as in Fig. 6C. Ocular area raised, without hump on posterior side, without comb of stronger hairs at median side of each ocular triad. Deep thoracic groove. Clypeus unmodified except sclerotized rim. Sternum wider than long (1.45/1.00), unmodified. Abdomen slightly higher than long, dorso-posteriorly pointed.
CHELICERAE. As in Fig. 35A–B, with short entapophyses, with pair of very small frontal apophyses near fang joints, whitish lateral area slightly protruding; without stridulatory ridges.
PALPS. As in Fig. 33A–C; coxa unmodified, trochanter slightly protruding ventrally, femur very large, proximally with distinct retrolateral process and prolateral-ventral ridge, distal ventral rim not protruding; patella ventrally reduced to strongly sclerotized narrow rim; tibia small relative to femur; procursus (Fig. 34A–C) slender, proximally with exposed tarsal organ (arrow in Fig. 42F), distally with prolateral-dorsal band of whitish membranous and fringed elements, with strongly sclerotized distal sclerite apparently moveable against proximal part of procursus; genital bulb (Fig. 34D–F) with small proximal sclerite connecting to tarsus, with large whitish area on retrolateral-ventral side, strong and slightly spiraling main bulbal process with subdistal sperm duct opening (arrow in Fig. 42G) and pointed tip.
LEGS. Without spines; with curved hairs on all tibiae and metatarsi, few weakly curved hairs also on femora; with few short vertical hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 7%; prolateral trichobothrium present on all leg tibiae; tarsi without regular pseudosegmentation but rather with many indistinct platelets.
Male (variation)
Tibia 1 in seven males (incl. holotype): 9.9–12.4 (mean 11.4). Lateral marks on carapace variably separated or connected with each other at carapace margin; sternum sometimes with light marks. Males from southern Napo and Pastaza are very similar but have slightly smaller palps and the distal sclerite on the procursus is slightly narrower in retrolateral view. This is also reflected in the relatively large CO1 distances between the sequenced specimen from Pastaza and the sequenced specimens from Sucumbíos and central to northern Napo (8.1–8.8%). Distances among the Sucumbíos and central to northern Napo specimens are 5.3% or lower.
Female
In general similar to male (Fig. 6D) but clypeus rim not sclerotized but with median ochre mark. Ventral sclerite in front of spinnerets variably divided medially or undivided. Tibia 1 in 13 females: 6.1– 7.7 (mean 7.2). ALS with one strongly widened spigot, one pointed spigot, and one large and four small cylindrical spigots; with distinctively sculptured area medially in front of ALS (similar to Fig. 41G). Epigynum (Fig. 36A–B) main anterior plate trapezoidal, slightly protruding, posteriorly medially slightly indented; posterior epigynal plate reduced to pair of small lateral sclerites. Females from Pastaza with similar anterior plate but less reduced posterior plate (Fig. 36E–F). Internal genitalia (Figs 35C, 36C–D) with pair of large pore plates in almost parallel position, narrowing posteriorly.
Distribution
Apparently widely distributed along the eastern Andean slopes of Ecuador (Fig. 4B).
Natural history
At the type locality and between La Bonita and Santa Barbara, the spiders were found hidden in deep sheltered spaces at ground level. In Antisana National Park, one specimen was found in thick mosses covering a tree trunk, the second one in a crevice of a rock wall. In the canyon of the Gruta de Los Tayos, the spiders were fairly abundant, usually under small ledges on the rock wall, up to several meters above the ground; no specimens were found in the neighboring forest. In Cavernas del Anzu Forest Reserve, some specimens were found in the entrance areas of caves (whose deeper parts were occupied by P. pastaza). Others were found in the neighboring forest; among the latter, one female was found in the mosses covering a tree trunk. Two egg sacs had diameters of 3.3 and 4.5 mm, respectively, and contained ~25/ 65 eggs with an egg diameter of 1.00 mm.
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Meng, Guanliang, Dupérré, Nadine, Astrin, Jonas & Herrera, Mauricio, 2023, Andean giants: Priscula spiders from Ecuador, with notes on species groups and egg-sac troglomorphism (Araneae: Pholcidae), pp. 1-63 in European Journal of Taxonomy 909 on pages 43-48, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.909.2351, http://zenodo.org/record/10462860