Modisimus culicinus
Creators: name: Huber, Bernhard A.
name: Villarreal, Osvaldo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pholcidae
Modisimus
Modisimus culicinus

description: Modisimus culicinus (Simon, 1893)
Figs 717–718, 1032, 1057
Hedypsilus culicinus Simon, 1893a: 322 (♂, Venezuela, “Orinoco”)
Hedypsilus lawrencei Lessert, 1938: 434, figs 15–17. Synonymized in Huber 1997b.
Hedypsilus culicinus – Simon 1893b: 484, figs 483–484, 486. — Gertsch & Peck 1992: 1192, figs 20– 26. — Huber 1997a: 95, figs 1–3.
Modisimus culicinus – Huber 1997b: 233, figs 2–4; 1998a: 592, figs 6a–b, 7e–f, 8d; 1998b: 1594, figs 94–96, 101; 2000: figs 89, 143, 188; 2001: 137; 2019: 52. — Saaristo 1999: 2; 2001: 24, figs 56– 60; 2010: 165, figs 25.31–37. — Huber & Benjamin 2005: 3306. — Beatty et al. 2008: 14, figs 5–6, 32–33, 64. — Tong & Li 2009: 25, figs 13–15, 54–59. — Huber et al. 2010: 287; 2014c: 8; 2017: 13, figs 1–2. — Huber & Warui 2012: 9. — Huber & Kwapong 2013: 10. — Tong 2013: 64, figs 32m–o, 83.
Hedypsilus simoni Huber, 1997 (misidentification) – González-Sponga 2010: 12, pl. 2, figs 1–11.
Notes
This is the only representative of Modisimus that has attained a pantropical distribution, with most records from between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23.4°N and 23.4°S) (Huber et al. 2017). It is usually found in buildings, but several records suggest that it easily invades disturbed and even seemingly undisturbed habitats. Several of the new records below are from relatively natural habitats, and the species was recently found to have massively invaded natural habitats on Galapagos (B.A. Huber, A. Acurio, unpubl. data).
We have reexamined the specimens identified by González-Sponga (2010) as Hedypsilus simoni; they are deposited in MIZA 105602 (MAGS 1134), and originate from a building in eastern Caracas, Urb. El Marqués, Calle Cuyuni [10.498° N, 66.804° W] (~14 E of the coordinates in González-Sponga 2010). These specimens are unambiguous M. culicinus, which is unique among described species in having a cuticular lobe frontally on the male ocular turret (cf. Huber 1997a: fig. 1; also illustrated by GonzálezSponga 2010: pl. 2, fig. 3).
New records
VENEZUELA – Aragua • 1 ♂ (abdomen missing), MIZA 105767 (MAGS 1388), Pico Codazzi [approximately 10.411° N, 67.303° W], 22 Jan. 1994 (A.R. Delgado, M.A. González S.). – Falcón • 2 ♀♀, ZFMK (Ar 22055), Península de Paraguaná, Cerro Santa Ana (11.8120° N, 69.9474° W), 300 m a.s.l., 17 Nov. 2018 (B.A. Huber, O. Villarreal M.) • 1 juv. in pure ethanol, ZFMK (Ven18- 184), Península de Paraguaná, near Cueva del Guano (11.9026° N, 69.9456° W), 140 m a.s.l., 16 Nov. 2018 (B.A. Huber, O. Villarreal M.) • 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, 4 juvs, ZFMK (Ar 22056), and 1 ♀, 2 juvs in pure ethanol, ZFMK (Ven20-143), SE Bariro (10.7304° N, 70.6957° W), 360 m a.s.l., under rocks on arid hill, 14 Feb. 2020 (B.A. Huber, O. Villarreal M., Q. Arias C.). – La Guaira • 8 ♂♂, 28 ♀♀, ZFMK (Ar 22057), and 2 ♀♀, 5 juvs in pure ethanol, ZFMK (Ven18-243), Catia La Mar (10.6092° N, 67.0064° W), 50 m a.s.l., 10 Dec. 2018 (B.A. Huber). – Trujillo • 1 ♀, MIZA 105792 (MAGS 1308), Mosquei, near Boconó (“Mosquei, alrededores de Boconó”) [approximately 9.287° N, 70.207° W], 20 Feb. 1991 (M.A. González S.).
Distribution
Pantropical species (Huber et al. 2017). In Venezuela, the species has been found in the states Aragua, Bolívar, Falcón, Miranda, Trujillo, and La Guaira (Fig. 1057).
Natural history
The newly collected specimens above (Falcón, La Guaira) were found in arid environments. In Catia La Mar, the species was found in the same microhabitat as Chisosa caquetio Huber, 2019 (dry leaf litter among cacti); on the Península de Paraguaná, it was found together with Chisosa caquetio and Galapa spiniphila Huber sp. nov. in dead basal leaves of spiny ground-dwelling bromeliads. Near Bariro, it shared the microhabitat (undersides of rocks) with an unidentified Ninetinae (only females available), and the locality with Ibotyporanga bariro Huber sp. nov. and Physocyclus globosus (Taczanowski, 1874).
description: Published as part of Huber, Bernhard A. & Villarreal, Osvaldo, 2020, On Venezuelan pholcid spiders (Araneae, Pholcidae), pp. 1-317 in European Journal of Taxonomy 718 on pages 202-204, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.718.1101, http://zenodo.org/record/4069574