Smeringopina ngungu Huber, 2013, new species
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Smeringopina
Smeringopina ngungu

description: Smeringopina ngungu new species
Figs. 842–855
Type. ♂ holotype from Congo D.R., Bas Congo Province, Thysville [=Mbanza-Ngungu; 5°15’S, 14°52’E, ~ 600 m a.s.l.], in large cave (1500 m), 6.x.1938 (M. Bequaert), in MRAC (1374-82, part).
Other material examined. Congo D.R.: Bas Congo: Grottes de Thysville, 1955 (Elias), 1♀ in MRAC (81948).
Etymology. The name is a noun in apposition, derived from the type locality.
Diagnosis. Easily distinguished from known congeners by large clypeus projection with subdistal branch on posterior side and huge male cheliceral apophyses (Figs. 847, 850), by distinctive shape of procursus (slender distal element directed toward dorsally; Figs. 851, 852), and by very small epigynum consisting of anterior sclerotized arc and posterior plate projecting into and largely filling this arc (Figs. 848, 854).
Male (holotype). Total body length 4.5, carapace width 1.6. Leg 1: 12.8 + 0.7 + 13.1, metatarsus broken, tibia 2: 8.8, tibia 3: 6.0, tibia 4: 8.5; tibia 1 L/d: 99. Distance PME-PME 195 µm, diameter PME 135 µm, distance PME- ALE 70 µm, distance AME-AME 45 µm, diameter AME 105 µm. Entire specimen apparently bleached, mostly pale ochre-yellow, carapace, clypeus and sternum without clear darker pattern, legs without darker rings, abdomen with barely visible darker pattern, ventral dark bands without lateral constriction. Habitus as in Fig. 842, ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with very indistinct ‘pseudo-lenses’; clypeus with very strong and large median apophysis with subdistal branch on posterior side (Figs. 847, 850); deep thoracic pit and pair of shallow furrows diverging behind pit. Chelicerae as in Figs. 847 and 850, with extremely long lateral proximal apophyses, pointed distal apophyses, without modified hairs. Palps as in Figs. 844–846, very small in relation to body size; coxa unmodified; trochanter with blunt ventral projection; femur with retrolatero-ventral apophysis directed toward ventrally and distally, without prolateral modification; prolateral femur-patella joint only slightly shifted toward ventrally; tarsus with few slightly stronger hairs dorsally (partly lost); procursus very simple, slender distal part curved toward dorsally, without hinge (Figs. 851–852); bulb with weakly sclerotized conical embolus (Fig. 853). Legs without spines and curved hairs, with few vertical hairs (most hairs missing), retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 1.5%; prolateral trichobothrium present on all tibiae. Gonopore apparently with two epiandrous spigots (not confirmed by SEM).
Female. In general similar to male; clypeus unmodified. Tibia 1: 11.5. Epigynum very small relative to abdomen (Fig. 843), consisting of anterior sclerotized arc and posterior plate projecting into and largely filling this arc (Figs. 848, 854); anteriorly with pair of membranous bulges arising medially and bent toward laterally, each filled with lamellar structures reminding of book-lung lamellae (Fig. 855; book-lungs situated more laterally and apparently not connected to these lamellae); internal genitalia as in Figs. 849 and 855.
Distribution. Known from type locality only (Fig. 293).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A., 2013, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Guineo-Congolian spider genus Smeringopina Kraus (Araneae, Pholcidae, pp. 1-160 in Zootaxa 3713 (1) on page 50, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3713.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/284803