Birabenella portai Piacentini & Grismado & Ramírez 2017, new species
Creators: name: Piacentini, Luis N.
name: Grismado, Cristian J.
name: Ramírez, Martín J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Oonopidae
Birabenella
Birabenella portai

description: Birabenella portai, new species
Figures 6; 7; 10C, D; 11
TYPE MATERIAL: Male holotype (MACN 37252 PBI _OON 50001), and female paratype (MACN 37251 PBI _OON 50000) from Argentina: Jujuy: Tilcara: Posta de Hornillos RN 9 km 72, 4 km S of Maimará, litter under bushes and cacti, 2390 m, -23.65612°, -65.43365°, Dec. 28, 2016, coll. Andrés Porta.
ETYMOLOGY: The specific epithet is a patronymic in honor of Andrés Porta (MACN), the collector of this species, in recognition of his continuous efforts in searching for and collecting small arthropods.
DIAGNOSIS: The male of B. portai is easily recognized by its less globose copulatory bulb with more complicated set of paraembolic, thin terminal elements (fig. 10C); the female by its internal genitalia, with short copulatory duct with very thick walls, apparently fused with lateral apodemes, and by heavily sclerotized supporting structure that surrounds laterally and posteriorly the posterior receptacle, which has an internal ω-shaped tube (fig. 10D).
DESCRIPTION: MALE (PBI_OON 50001). CEPHALOTHORAX: All carapace setae dark, needlelike. Eyes: ALE largest; posterior eye row recurved from above, straight from front (fig. 7D, G); PLE-PME separated by PME radius to PME diameter. Sternum longer than wide, without radial furrows between coxae I–II, II–III, III–IV, surface finely reticulate; setae dark, densest laterally. Mouthparts: Setae dark. Labium subpentagonal; with 1 or 2 setae on anterior margin, with unpaired, erect median setae near base. Endites with anteriorly directed, flattened, black setae. ABDOMEN: All setae dark, needlelike. LEGS: Spines absent. GENITALIA (fig. 10C): Palpal femur two or more times as long as trochanter; bulb more or less elongated piriform, membranous fundus nearly spherical, ventral, from where arises weakly sclerotized seminal duct; gently curved to dorsal at its origin, turning almost straight along almost all its length, running parallel to tendon; distal part of bulb with complex set of translucent, flattened projections (some with pointed tips, other with truncated tips, surrounding embolus opening). Ventral digitiform projection slightly curved to retrolateral side.
FEMALE (PBI_OON 50000). As in male except as noted. CEPHALOTHORAX: Female palp spines absent. GENITALIA (fig. 10D): Dorsal view: anterior sclerite small, drop shaped, apparently with lumen; two thin consecutive transverse sclerotized bars separating it from posterior part of genitalia. Copulatory opening apparently leading to thick-walled anterior copulatory duct, apparently fused with paired lateral, transverse projections (apodemes) with muscular insertions at their tips; posterior receptacle, with thick anterior wall, with wrinkled surface and nearly ω-shaped internal tube. Posterior receptacle on the middle of heavily sclerotized structure with lateral extensions bearing muscle insertions.
OTHER MATERIAL EXAMINED: ARGENTINA: Jujuy: Tilcara: Purmamarca, Cerro de los Siete Colores -23.7438861°, -65.5052013°, 28 Dec 2016, A. Porta coll., one immature that probably belongs to this species (MACN-Ar).
description: Published as part of Piacentini, Luis N., Grismado, Cristian J. & Ramírez, Martín J., 2017, An Update of the Goblin Spider Genus Birabenella Grismado, 2010 (Araneae: Oonopidae), with the Description of Three New Species, pp. 1-20 in American Museum Novitates 2017 (3883) on pages 10-13, DOI: 10.1206/3883.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4566163