Cosmophasis waeri Hurni-Cranston & Hill 2021, new species
Creators: name: Hurni-Cranston, Tiziano
name: Hill, David E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Cosmophasis
Cosmophasis waeri

description: 12. Cosmophasis waeri, new species   
Figures 51-52, Map (Figures 1-2) #60  
 Type material. The holotype ♀ (HC-BB5 f) was collected by the senior author on a small potted Codiaeum variegatum plant at Waer, on the eastern side of Banda Besar (Banda Island), in the Banda Islands (collected 8 FEB 2016, specimen preserved in alcohol 18 FEB 2016). This specimen will be deposited in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA), Gainesville.   
 Etymology. The species name, waeri is a reference to the fact that this species was found at Waer on Banda Besar.   
 Diagnosis. The female C. waeri most closely resembles C. squamata, also found on Banda Besar. However the epigynum is completely convex, lacking the two parallel furrows characteristic of C. squamata. In addition, a small orange spot is present at the center of each darker area on the dorsal opisthosoma of C. waeri. Below each light-yellow or off-white marginal band on either side of the opisthosoma, there is only a narrow and irregular dark brown line in the female C. waeri. This dark line is much wider in C. squamata. The carapace of our specimen appears to be rubbed in the eye region, but there is no sign of the pair of dark transverse bands that cross the carapace of C. squamata. The male is not known.   
 Description of female (Figures 51-52). Length about 5 mm (Figure 52:1-2). Chelicerae typical for genus, dark amber in colour, mostly glabrous. A single large, unidentate, triangular tooth is present, toward the median, on both the anterior and posterior margins of each fang groove (Figure 52: 3-4). White scales surround the anterior eyes below, orange scales above. Scale cover of eye region not known. Narrow white band present around the margin of the carapace, a shorter narrow band just above this near the front. Carapace dark brown, with dense cover of iridescent green-gold scales around the sides and to the rear of the PLE.   
 Dorsal opisthosoma covered with dense array of dark brown, rounded, overlapping scales, with a wide marginal band of light-yellow or off-white, rounded, overlapping scales extending from the front around most of the length of each side. Below this on either side a narrow, interrupted, brown line is present. Three transverse bands of these scales cross the dorsal opisthosoma, where a less regular and interrupted median tract of the same scales is also present. A small orange spot is present at the center of each dark-brown area. At the rear of the dorsal opisthosoma, and on the dorsal surfaces of the posterior lateral spinnerets, iridescent violet scales are present. Below, the opisthosoma is light yellow-brown, with two pairs of large white spots on either side, and a dark then light transverse band at the rear (Figure 52:2). The spinnerets are grey and unremarkable. Legs as shown in Figure 50, with some iridescence and indistinct longitudinal stripes. The epigynum (Figure 52:5-9) is convex and triangular, similar in outline to that of C. squamata but otherwise distinctive. Figure 52:9 (and to a lesser degree, Figure 52:5) best illustrates the pair of convex, diagonal lobes on either side of the septum, each behind a longer but narrower transverse lobe.
description: Published as part of Hurni-Cranston, Tiziano & Hill, David E., 2021, Three new jumping spiders of the genus Cosmophasis from Wallacea (Araneae: Salticidae: Chrysillini), pp. 1-84 in Peckhamia 228 (1) on page 58, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7171908