Modisimus angulatus Huber & Fischer & Astrin 2010, SP. NOV.
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Fischer, Nadine
name: Astrin, Jonas J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Modisimus
Modisimus angulatus

description: MODISIMUS ANGULATUS HUBER & FISCHER SP. NOV.   
(Figs 21, 22, 40, 129, 195)  
 Type: Male holotype from near La Toma (18°27.5 ′ N, 70°07.2 ′ W), San Cristóbal Prov., Dominican Republic; degraded forest, 70 m a.s.l., near ground, 7 November 2005 (B.A. Huber), in ZFMK (DR 3).   
 Etymology: The species name refers to the dorsally angular abdomen.   
 Diagnosis: Medium-sized species with pair of small projections on male chelicerae, provided with weakly modified hairs (Fig. 129; similar to M. femoratus and M. jima sp. nov.), epigynum very similar to M. femoratus. Distinguished from M. femoratus and M. jima sp. nov. by pattern on sternum (lateral borders of brown marks disrupted; Fig. 22), dorsally angular abdomen (Fig. 21), male cheliceral projections slightly wider apart (Fig. 129), and clypeus pattern in males indistinct or even missing.   
 Male (holotype): Total length, 2.3; carapace width, 0.9. Leg 1, 20.0 (4.9 + 0.4 + 4.9 + 8.2 + 1.6); tibia 2, 3.0; tibia 3, 2.4; tibia 4, 2.8. Tibia 1 L/d: 55. Habitus as in Figures 21 and 22, carapace pale ochre-yellow, ocular area darker posteriorly, clypeus with very indistinct pair of brown marks, sternum laterally brown, with a distinctively disrupted lateral pattern (Fig. 22), and whitish medially; legs light brown, and femora and tibiae with light tips and dark subdistal rings; abdomen pale greenish grey, with black spots dorsally and laterally, genital area and area in front of spinnerets light brown. Ocular area elevated; thoracic furrow distinct. PME–PME, 70 Mm; PME diameter, 90 Mm; PME–ALE, 105 Mm; AME–AME, 10 Mm; AME diameter, 15 Mm. Sternum wider than long (0.6/0.4), unmodified. Chelicerae as in Figure 129, very similar to M. femoratus and M. jima sp. nov., but frontal apophyses slightly more widely spaced. Palps very similar to M. femoratus (cf. Fig. 124). Legs with short spines on femur 1 (two rows, of ~45 and 15 spines each) and femur 2 (two rows, of ~35 spines each), with many short vertical hairs on all femora; curved hairs on tibiae and metatarsi 2 and 3; retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 11%; prolateral trichobothrium missing on tibia 1, present on other tibiae; tarsus 1 with ~25 pseudosegments.   
 Variation: Tibia 1 in three other males: 4.7–4.9.   
 Female: In general similar to male; tibia 1 in ten females 3.0–3.4, mean 3.2. Epigynum, similar M. femoratus (Fig. 40); dorsal view not visibly different from M. femoratus (cf. Figs 63, 126).   
 Distribution and habitat: Known from two localities in the south-central Dominican Republic (Fig. 195). In the Santo Domingo botanical garden, this species was found in low vegetation and under the roof of a shelter.   
 Material examined: Dominican Republic: San Cristóbal Prov., near La Toma, 1♂, holotype above, together with 1♀ (ZFMK, DR 3). Distrito Nacional, Santo Domingo, Jardín Botánico (18°29.7 ′ N, 69°57.2 ′ W), forest along brook, 50 m a.s.l., low vegetation, near ground, 27 November 2005 (B.A. Huber), 3♂, 7♀ and one juvenile (ZFMK, DR 110); Santo Domingo, Jardín Botánico, under roof of shelter, 18–22 March 1984 (H. & L. Levi), 1♂ and 2♀ (MCZ 26.666). ‘ Boca Caica’ (= Distrito Nacional: Boca Chica?) 5–7 March 1955 (A. M. Nadler), 4♀ (AMNH).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., Fischer, Nadine & Astrin, Jonas J., 2010, High level of endemism in Haiti's last remaining forests: a revision of Modisimus (Araneae: Pholcidae) on Hispaniola, using morphology and molecules, pp. 244-299 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158 (2) on page 264, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00559.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5438272