Myrmaplata Proszynski 2016, gen. n.
Creators: name: Prószyński, Jerzy
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Salticidae
Myrmaplata

description: Gen. Myrmaplata Prószyński, 2016 gen. n.   
Figures 1E–F, 2G, 3H  
 Type species. Salticus plataleoides Pickard-Cambridge O. 1869.   
 Documentation studied. Comparative diagnostic drawings of 5 species in Prószyński (2016a) and original literature.   
 Etymology. Name combines words Myrmarachne and plataleoides, grammar gender assumed feminine.   
 Diagnosis. Female. Spermathecal "pipes" long and thin, differing from Myrmarachne by absence of transversal detour, terminated at the anterior end by discrete, round or oval small chamber, with internal spines (Fig. 2G). The proximal (topographically posterior) end of pipe is somewhat swollen, like in Bocus. Copulatory ducts, visible after staining, make large membranous coils, connecting slit-like, almost indiscernible, copulatory openings pressed to median septum of epigyne, with proximal ends of spermathecae, near posterior rim of epigyne. Males differ from majority of MYRMARACHNINES by broad basis of embolus, gradually narrowing. In M. plataleoides loop of embolus is shorter, overlaying only anterior half of a bulbus, but in M. turriformis and M. wanlessi encircling entire bulbus, spermophor is not visible on enclosed drawings (Fig. 3H). Tibial apophysis is short, straight and conical. Body of males is very long, with strongly pronounced body constriction, cephalic part twice higher than thorax, block like. Chelicerae are very long, swollen apically, pedicel is long (Figs. 1E–F). Female's abdomen oval, without constriction, pointed posteriorly. Philipinese Myrmarachne assimilis Banks, 1930 and Myrmarachne markaha Barrion, Litsinger, 1995 have similarly elongate chelicerae, but their palps and epigyne indicate that belongs to true Myrmarachne.   
 More diagnostic documentation - see at: http://www.peckhamia.com/salticidae/q24- Myrmaplata.html and, especially, Edmunds & Prószyński (2003: 298, Figs. 1-7).   
 Remark. Myrmaplata plataleoides, recognizable at the first glance and common in South and South East Asia, is associated with large, yellow Oecophylla ants, broadly distributed in tropical Asia, Africa and Australia and popularly known because builds large aerial nest from living leaves of trees. However, in Australia, local Oecophylla smarragdina is associated with Myrmarachne smaragdina Ceccarelli, 2010, externally very similar to Myrmaplata plataleoides (documented by photos by R. Whyte, see also Ceccarelli (2010: 250) but having spermathecae of true Myrmarachne. Similarity of their habitus is apparently due to mimicking the same model ant.   
 Distribution. India, Sri Lanka, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, China.   
 Composition. The genus accommodate species classified heretofore as the Myrmarachne plataleoides group of species: Myrmaplata hispidacoxa (Edmunds, Prószyński, 2003) comb. n., M. plataleoides (Pickard-Cambridge O., 1869) comb. n., M. turriformis (Badcock, 1918) comb. n., M. wanlessi (Edmunds, Prószynski, 2003) comb. n.
description: Published as part of Prószyński, Jerzy, 2016, Delimitation and description of 19 new genera, a subgenus and a species of Salticidae (Araneae) of the world, pp. 4-32 in Ecologica Montenegrina 7 on pages 9-10, DOI: 10.37828/em.2016.7.1, http://zenodo.org/record/13224403