Duninia Marusik &amp; Fet 2009, gen. n.
Creators: name: Marusik, Yuri
name: Fet, Victor
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Hersiliidae
Duninia

description: <i>Duninia</i> gen. n. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 64FD3C91-A822-42B1-9779-592D9D3EF7E2 <b>Type species.</b> <i>Duninia baehrae</i> sp. n. <b>Etymology.</b> The genus name is a patronym honoring our late colleague, friend, and a prominent araneologist Pyotr Dunin (1952-1998) who lived and worked in Baku (Azerbaijan) and Togliatti (Russia). Gender: feminine. <b>Diagnosis.</b> <i>Duninia</i> gen. n. can be easily distinguished from other genera of Hersiliidae by its globular tegulum, thick seminal duct, non-screw-shaped embolus that is thicker than the tegular apophysis, round spermathecae, and a heavily sclerotized copulatory opening below the epigynal plate. A globular tegulum is also present in the Central Asian genus <i>Deltshevia</i> gen. n., but this genus has a screw-shaped embolus and a thinner tegular apophysis. Females of <i>Ovtsharenkoia pallida</i> also seem to have copulatory openings below the epigynal plate, but they are not heavily sclerotized as in <i>Duninia</i> gen. n.; also, <i>O. pallida</i> does not have round spermathecae. <b>Description.</b> Body length ca. 5 mm, carapace as long as wide from 1.75 to 2.25. Pattern as in <i>Hersiliola</i>. Palp cymbium with a long tip, tegulum globular, seminal duct wide, embolus wide and not screw-shaped, tegular apophysis claw-like, with its claw part thinner than embolus. Epigynal plate with a septum-like structure, but without windows and openings, median plate without distinct margins. Copulatory opening is located below the epigynal plate in an epigastral fold; spermathecae round, coiled ducts absent. <b>Comments.</b> Conformation of the epigyne in this genus is, in some respects, unique among entelegyne spiders. The epigynal plate has no openings (furrows or fovea) but possesses two pairs of fovea on the vertical posterior wall located inside the epigastral fold. The lateral pair of fovea is shallow and elongate. Another pair of fovea is closer to the median part and located deeper; they have a more heavily sclerotized wall and are very deep. It seems that these deep pockets have copulatory openings inside the anterior part. Lateral pockets seem to match the tegular apophysis of the male. There are few taxa among entelegyne spiders that have a copulatory opening on the posterior vertical wall of the epigyne located in the epigastral fold. Besides some Erigoninae, we know of only one such genus, <i>Paratus</i> (Liocranidae) (cf. Marusik et al. 2008). <i>Paratus</i> has epigynal plate without furrows and fovea, and a small fovea hidden in the epigastral wall that leads to two closely separated copulatory openings. The male palp of <i>Duninia</i> gen. n. is unique among Hersiliidae because of its short, broad embolus and tegular apophysis extended along the cymbial axis. <b>Distinguishing characters.</b> Two species of <i>Duninia</i> gen. n. can be easily distinguished by the shape of the copulatory organs. <b>Composition and distribution.</b> <i>Duninia</i> gen. n. includes two species: <i>D. baehrae</i> sp. n. (type species; Turkmenistan) and <i>D. rheimsae</i> sp. n. (northern Iran, Tehran Province).
description: Published as part of <i>Marusik, Yuri &amp; Fet, Victor, 2009, A survey of East Palaearctic Hersiliola Thorell, 1870 (Araneae, Hersiliidae), with a description of three new genera, pp. 75-114 in ZooKeys 16 (16)</i> on pages 95-96, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.16.229, http://zenodo.org/record/576478
description: {"references": ["Marusik YM, Zheng G, Li SQ (2008) A review of the genus Paratus Simon (Araneae, Dionycha). Zootaxa 1965: 50 - 60."]}