Epicadus Simon 1895
Creators: name: Machado, Miguel
name: Teixeira, Renato Augusto
name: Lise, Arno Antonio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Thomisidae
Epicadus

description: Epicadus Simon, 1895
Eripus Walckenaer, 1833: 438, 441 (Type species Thomisus heterogaster Guérin-Méneville, 1829, by monotypy); Walckenaer 1837: 541.
Epicadus Simon, 1895: 1052 (replacement name for Eripus Walckenaer, 1833; preoccupied by Eripus Dejean, 1829 [Coleoptera]); F.O. Pickard-Cambridge 1900: 160; Mello-Leitão 1929: 93; Silva-Moreira and Machado 2016: 283; Machado et al. 2017: 448.
Tobias Simon, 1895: 1053 (Type species Stephanopis camelina O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869, by original designation); F.O. Pickard-Cambridge 1900: 161; Mello-Leitão 1929: 80; Machado et al. 2015: 566.
Type species. Epicadus heterogaster (Guérin-Méneville, 1829).
Diagnosis. As recently proposed by Machado et al. (2017), the genus Epicadus resembles Epicadinus and Onocolus in the general shape of the male palp, presenting a flat and discoid tegular structure without any apophysis, filiform embolous encircling the tegulum and in the canoe-shaped RTA that is fused to a pointed and usually curved DTA (Fig. 1E). However, Epicadus species can easily be recognized and distinguished from other Stephanopinae genera by 1) their globose opisthosoma with pronounced conical opisthosomal projections, 2) the dome-shaped prosoma with elevated thoracic area, 3) presence of a proximal sensorial pit (group of trichobrothria surrounded by duster-shaped setae) located on a dorsal depression of each tibia (Figs 1A, B), 4) epigynal plate with posterior folds elevated and joining in the middle to form a median septum (Fig. 1C) and 5) by the copulatory ducts presenting a S-shaped configuration (Fig. 1D).
Description. Polychromatic and cryptic bark-dwelling spiders with accentuated sexual size dimorphism and body coloration varying from to dark-brown to purple and pink (conservative in males, which are predominantly dark-orange on prosoma and legs and yellow on the opisthosoma). Prosoma as long as wide, in some cases bearing a pair of ocular projections above the ALE and a strong and conical MS on the thoracic portion (as in E. heterogaster and E. rubripes) (Fig. 1F), where a white spot can also be observed; clypeus high (about five times the diameter of AME) and in most of the species with an upside down V-shaped mark. Opisthosoma presenting three (E. caudatus, E. granulatus, E. pustulosus and E. taczanowskii), five (E. camelinus, E. dimidiaster sp. nov., E. pulcher, E. tigrinus sp. nov., E. trituberculatus, E. rubripes) or seven (E. heterogaster) conical projections (less conspicuous in males). Legs I and II stronger and larger than the posterior ones and with conical or blister-shaped setae sockets on the ventral surface of femora; anterior tibiae and metatarsi with three pairs of ventral macrosetae each. Epigynum with copulatory openings exposed or covered by prominences of a median septum formed by the joining of the C-shaped posterior folds of the epigynal plate; two pairs of kidney-shaped spermathecae, varying in size and level of constriction of the upper curve of the copulatory ducts. Male palp with discoid tegulum, filiform embolus and both apophysis (canoe-shaped RTA + pointed and curved DTA) emerging together on the tibiae.
Composition. Eleven species: Epicadus camelinus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869), Epicadus caudatus (Mello- Leitão, 1929), Epicadus dimidiaster sp. nov., Epicadus granulatus Banks, 1909, Epicadus heterogaster (Guérin- Méneville, 1829), Epicadus pustulosus (Simon, 1929), Epicadus pulcher (Mello-Leitão, 1929), Epicadus rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924, Epicadus taczanowskii (Roewer, 1951), Epicadus tigrinus sp. nov. and Epicadus trituberculatus (Taczanowski, 1872).
Updated distribution. From central Mexico to southwestern Argentina (Fig. 17).
description: Published as part of Machado, Miguel, Teixeira, Renato Augusto & Lise, Arno Antonio, 2018, There and back again: More on the taxonomy of the crab spiders genus Epicadus (Thomisidae: Stephanopinae), pp. 501-530 in Zootaxa 4382 (3) on pages 502-504, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4382.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/1183130