Maikukunui tokerau Taylor, 2025, new species
Creators: name: Taylor, Christopher K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Opiliones
Phalangiidae
Maikukunui
Maikukunui tokerau

description: Maikukunui tokerau new species
Fig. 6
http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 51220457-2B23-436E-92DB-F960A07B365D
Holotype: ND. Male, Waipoua Forest, near visitors’ centre, ca. 35°40’S 173°33’E, el. ca. 120 m, 5.iv.1995, C. Griswold & T. Meikle (CAS).
Paratypes: ND. 1 male, Te Paki Coastal Park, 7 Feb 75, A. K. Walker (NZAC); AK. 1 male, Titirangi, 12 December 1945, R. Forster (MONZ).
Etymology: Species name a noun in apposition, from the Maori for ‘north’.
Description: Male (Fig. 6): Prosoma length 1.6–2.2, prosoma width 3.0–3.6, body length 4.2–5.9. Body unarmed except for small black, spinose setae scattered over entire body. Dorsum of prosoma mostly mottled orange with white U-shaped stripe between either side of ocularium and anterior margin of carapace, white patches also present around lateral margins of dorsal prosomal plate and around ozopores. Ocularium off-white with black rings around eyes. Mesopeltidium medially purple with white patches directly behind ocularium, laterally mottled orange. Metapeltidium and dorsum of opisthosoma mottled light purple with cream-coloured patches. Mouthparts and coxae medially cream-coloured with light brown mottling on coxae, becoming more evenly medium brown distally; venter of opisthosoma mostly cream-coloured with transverse stripes of mottled purple-brown posteriorly. Chelicerae: Segment I 13.2–17.8, segment II 15.3–20.0. Mostly orange, with dorsodistal cream patch on first segment. First segment with widely-spaced denticles with prominent longitudinal row of more elongate denticles ventromedially (Fig. 6b); denticles becoming absent dorsodistally. Second segment more evenly denticulate, with some more elongate denticles proximodorsally. Cheliceral fingers elongate, slightly bowed; mobile finger with numerous setae around median tooth. Pedipalp: Femur 2.6–2.8, patella 1.1–1.3, tibia 1.4–1.8, tarsus 3.2– 3.6. Unarmed, including median side of coxa, except for numerous black setae. Femur striped purple and cream-coloured; patella and proximal half of tibia mostly purple; distal half of femur and tarsus cream-coloured. Patella without apophysis or hypersetose region. Microtrichia present along entire length of tarsus. Claw without ventral teeth. Legs: Leg I femur 10.1–12.1, patella 1.9–2.2, tibia 9.9–10.6; leg II femur 16.7–19.2, patella 2.1–2.4, tibia 16.2–19.2; leg III femur 8.3–10.4, patella 1.8–2.0, tibia 7.9–10.1; leg IV femur 11.5–13.6, patella 2.0–2.3, tibia 10.7–13.5. Femora evenly denticulate; remaining segments unarmed except few denticles around distal ends of patellae. Tibia II with eleven or twelve pseudosegments; tibia IV with three to five pseudosegments. Penis (Fig. 6d, e): Shaft and tendon elongate; all four bristle groups present, left anterior group relatively small. Distinct lateral protrusion of glans above left anterior bristle group. Glans of medium length, sides becoming subparallel distally, dorsoventrally flattened distally.
Female: Prosoma length 2.2, prosoma width 3.2, body length 5.4. Only available female specimen poorly preserved, bleached. Dorsum unarmed. Colouration retains white patches between either side of ocularium and anterior margin of carapace, and indication of dark square median saddle on anterior segments of opisthosoma, with bright transverse stripe behind saddle. Chelicerae: Segment I 1.2, segment II 2.7; slender, relatively long for female neopilionid; dorsum with few strong, sharp denticles on first segment and basal part of second segment. Pedipalp: Femur 1.8, patella 1.0, tibia 1.3, tarsus 2.8; as for male, except microtrichia present over greater part of tibia. Legs: Leg I missing; leg II femur 14.2, patella 2.3, tibia 15.7; leg III femur 7.8, patella 1.8, tibia 7.6; leg IV femur 10.6, patella 1.9, tibia 10.9. Femora denticulate.
Comments: Maikukunui tokerau can be readily distinguished from other New Zealand Enantiobuninae by the male’s cheliceral armature, with widely spaced, relatively elongate denticles ventrally on the first segment. The male genital morphology with its relatively short glans, subtriangular in ventral view, distinguishes Maikukunui from other New Zealand neopilionid genera except Forsteropsalis and Ungoliant, in which the glans is thicker dorsoventrally. Maikukunui may also be distinguished from these genera by the lack of denticles on the pedipalpal coxa, from Forsteropsalis by its longer pedipalps, and from Ungoliant by the lack of ventrodistal apophyses on the basal pseudosegments of distitarsus II.
Maikukunui tokerau is the only species of Neopilionidae described thus far from the Northland region of New Zealand, and only the second after Monoscutum titirangiense known from the Auckland region.
description: Published as part of Taylor, Christopher K., 2025, Further discussion of relationships within Australasian Neopilionidae (Opiliones: Phalangioidea), with description of two new species and eight new genera, pp. 52-82 in Zootaxa 5631 (1) on pages 69-70, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5631.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/15326621