Modisimus pelejil 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 pelejil

description: MODISIMUS PELEJIL HUBER & FISCHER SP. NOV.   
(Figs 57, 79, 176–178, 200)  
 Type: Male holotype from east of San Juan de la Maguana (18°47.6 ′ N, 71°12.2 ′ W), San Juan Prov., Dominican Republic; degraded forest along river, 410 m a.s.l., 16 November 2005 (B.A. Huber), in ZFMK (DR 59 a).   
 Etymology: The name honours the victims of the massacre of 1937, when Trujillo had 25 000 Haitians murdered within 36 hours. The Spanish word perejil was used to identify Haitians, who tend to pronounce it like ‘pelejil’. The name is used as a noun in apposition.   
 Diagnosis: Medium-sized species, distinguished from congeners by barely modified male chelicerae (Fig. 177; similar to M. cuadro sp. nov.), shapes of epigynum (Fig. 57) and procursus (Fig. 176).   
 Male (holotype): Total length, 2.1; carapace width, 0.95. Leg 1: 16.4 (4.2 + 0.3 + 4.3 + 6.2 + 1.4); tibia 2, 2.8; tibia 3, 2.3; tibia 4, 2.8. Tibia 1 L/d: 55. Habitus similar to M. jima sp. nov. (cf. Fig. 19), carapace pale ochre-white, with dark median band of internal structure visible through cuticle, ocular area and clypeus darker brown; sternum with two wide brown longitudinal bands, whitish medially; legs light ochre-brown, tips of femora and tibiae whitish; abdomen bluish grey, densely covered with black spots dorsally and laterally, with some bluish-white spots along median line and in dorsal transversal line. Ocular area strongly elevated, with several stronger hairs on top; thoracic furrow distinct. PME–PME, 80 Mm; PME diameter, 95 Mm; PME–ALE, 105 Mm; black spot in AME area, but apparently no lenses. Sternum wider than long (0.6/0.4), unmodified. Chelicerae barely modified, with a pair of slightly elevated light areas near median line, and slightly stronger hairs more laterally (Fig. 177). Palps as in Figure 176, coxa with retrolateral apophysis, femur with rounded proximal and pointed distal ventral apophyses; procursus with dorsal spine-like process and membranous distal structures, bulb with large, weakly curved apophysis and complex membranous subdistal projections. Legs with small spines in ventral rows on femora 1 and 2 (~25 spines on femur 1; 20 on femur 2); retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 15%; all femora with more than the usual number of short vertical hairs; no curved hairs; prolateral trichobothrium missing on tibia 1, but present on all other tibiae. Tarsus 1 with ~20 pseudosegments.   
 Variation: The other male lacks spines on femora 1 and 2; tibia 1: 3.9.   
 Female: In general similar to male. Tibia 1 in two females: 3.0 and 3.5. Epigynum, simple roundish plate, barely elevated (Fig. 57); dorsal view as in Figures 79 and 178.   
 Distribution: Known from type locality only (Fig. 200).   
 Material examined: Dominican Republic: San Juan Prov., east of San Juan de la Maguana, 1♂, holotype; same data, 1♂, 3♀ and two juveniles (ZFMK, DR 59).
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 pages 284-285, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00559.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5438272