Philodromus Walckenaer 1826
Creators: name: Muster, Christoph
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Philodromidae
Philodromus

description: Genus <i>Philodromus</i> Walckenaer, 1826 ad part. (the <i>Philodromus histrio</i> species group) <i>Rhysodromus</i> Schick, 1965: 67. <i>Philodromus histrio</i> species group – Dondale and Redner 1975: 370, 372; Szita and Logunov 2008: 25-27. <b>Type species</b> of <i>Rhysodromus</i>: <i>Thomisus histrio</i> Latreille, 1819. <b>Diagnosis.</b> <i>Philodromus</i> spiders with some <i>Ebo</i> -like characters: AME larger than other eyes (AME size index 0.035-0.06), leg II moderately elongated (Leg II length index 1.1-1.4). Prosoma longer than wide (or at least as wide as long). Clypeus high (Clypeus height index&gt; 0.16, Fig. 10). Spination of legs similar to <i>Halodromus</i> and <i>Titanebo</i>, but more variable. Metatarsus III and IV ventral 2-2-2 (if always?). Patella of male palp usually without apophysis, in subgenus <i>Locupletes</i> Schick, 1965 with small apical apophysis (&lt;1/4 length of patella), palpal tibia with 0-2 apophyses. Embolus stout, its tip pointing to cymbium tip. PTA present or absent. Conductor a membraneous outgrowth at anterior margin of tegulum. Female genitalia not clearly distinguishable from <i>Halodromus</i>. <b>Remarks.</b> The eastern-Palaearctic species of the <i>Philodromus histrio</i> group were recently reviewed by Szita and Logunov (2008), but delineation of the taxon remained vague and no evidence for monophyly of the included species was provided. The <i>histrio</i> group in its current limits is most likely an artificial assemblage of superficially similar species. A recent cladistic analysis within Philodromidae (Muster 2009) has shown that <i>histrio</i> and related species are more closely related to the Thanatini (<i>Thanatus</i> and <i>Tibellus</i>) than to other <i>Philodromus</i> species groups. Thus, <i>Rhysodromus</i> clearly deserves re-elevation to genus rank, but the urgently required revision of the <i>histrio</i> group from a phylogenetic perspective is beyond the scope of this study. <b>Composition and distribution.</b> Szita and Logunov (2008) include 16 species from the eastern Palearctic in the <i>Philodromus histrio</i> group. In the Nearctic the taxon is represented by three polytypic species (Schick 1965; Dondale and Redner 1975). The group also occurs in the Mediterranean and in (northern) Africa, but species from this region still await a proper revision. <i>Philodromus halophilus</i> (Levy, 1977) comb. n. is transferred from <i>Ebo</i> to this group. The male lacks a patellar apophysis and the morphometric indices fall well within the range of the <i>histrio</i> group.
description: Published as part of <i>Muster, Christoph, 2009, The Ebo-like running crab spiders in the Old World (Araneae, Philodromidae), pp. 47-73 in ZooKeys 16 (16)</i> on page 55, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.16.230, http://zenodo.org/record/576477
description: {"references": ["Schick RX (1965). The crab spiders of California (Araneae, Thomisidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 129: 1 - 180.", "Dondale CD, Redner JH (1975) The fuscomarginatus and histrio groups of the spider genus Philodromus in North America (Araneida: Thomisidae). Canadian Entomologist 107: 369 - 384.", "Szita E, Logunov DV (2008) A review of the histrio group of the spider genus Philodromus Walckenaer, 1826 (Araneae, Philodromidae) of the eastern Palaearctic region. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 54: 23 - 73.", "Muster C (2009) Phylogenetic relationships within Philodromidae, with a taxonomic revision of the Philodromus subgenus Artanes in the western Palearctic (Arachnida: Araneae). Invertebrate Systematics 23: 135 - 169.", "Levy G (1977) The philodromid spiders of Israel (Araneae: Philodromidae). Israel Journal of Zoology 26: 193 - 229."]}