Hersiliola Thorell 1870
Creators: name: Marusik, Yuri
name: Fet, Victor
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Hersiliidae
Hersiliola

description: <i>Hersiliola</i> Thorell, 1870 <b>Type species.</b> <i>Aranea macullulata</i> Dufour, 1831, from Spain. <b>Diagnosis.</b> <i>Hersiliola</i> can be easily distinguished from other Palaearctic hersiliid genera by short spinnerets (shorter than abdomen length) and the shape of copulatory organs: discoid tegulum; long, whip-like coiled embolus; a small tegular apophysis perpendicular to the axis of the palp; insemination ducts coiled around fertilization ducts and uncoiled upper loop. The other three Central Asian genera of Hersiliidae (described here) have either a globular tegulum or have more than one tegular apophysis and uncoiled insemination ducts. From habitually similar African genera (<i>Tama</i> Simon, 1882 and <i>Tyrotama</i> Foord &amp; Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2005), <i>Hersiliola</i> can be distinguished by a digitate cymbium; presence of a hook-like median tegular apophysis; flattened bulbus of the male palp [=discoid tegulum]; a filiform, elongate, spirally coiled embolus; elongate, coiled copulatory ducts; small [relatively smaller] seminal receptacles (Foord and Dippenaar-Schoeman 2005); and some somatic characters. See Foord and Dippenaar- Schoeman (2005) for a detailed redescription of the genus and the type species. See also below for the studied material of the type species and comments on its distribution. <b>Comments.</b> For a long time this genus, as well as the Afrotropical <i>Tama</i>, was diagnosed as a hersiliid with short spinnerets (shorter than abdomen length). All species with short spinnerets were placed in these two genera until Foord and Dippenaar- Schoeman (2005) recognized that species from southern Africa have copulatory organs and some somatic characters very different from <i>Hersiliola</i> and <i>Tama</i>, and described a new genus <i>Tyrotama</i>. <b>Composition.</b> Here, we assign nine species to <i>Hersiliola</i>, including four new species: <i>H. afghanica</i> Roewer, 1960 (&amp;female;, Afghanistan); <i>H. esyunini</i> sp. n. (♁ &amp;female;, Uzbekistan); <i>H. foordi</i> sp. n. (&amp;female;, southern Iran); <i>H. lindbergi</i> sp. n. (&amp;female;, Afghanistan); <i>H. macullulata</i> (Dufour, 1831) (♁ &amp;female;, Spain, Algeria, Libya, Mali, Israel, Yemen); <i>H. simoni</i> (O.P.- Cambridge, 1872) (♁ &amp;female;, from Morocco to Israel); <i>H. sternbergsi</i> sp. n. (♁ &amp;female;, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan); <i>H. versicolor</i> (Blackwall, 1865) (&amp;female;, Cape Verde); and <i>H. xinjiangenis</i> (Liang &amp; Wang, 1989) (♁ &amp;female;, Xinjiang, China). Of these, two species, <i>H. foordi</i> sp. n. and <i>H. lindbergi</i> sp. n., known only from females, could in fact belong to other genera. It is very likely that actual diversity of <i>Hersiliola</i> is higher, and it seems that some junior synonyms could be revalidated. <i>Hersiliola pallida</i> Kroneberg, 1875 is transferred to a new genus, <i>Ovtsharenkoia</i> gen. n. (see below). <b>Distinguishing characters.</b> Species of <i>Hersiliola</i> can be distinguished by the shape of the copulatory organs. The most important diagnostic characters in the male palp are as follows: (1) position of the embolic base; (2) number of embolic coils; (3) shape and position of tegular apophysis; and (4) size of cymbial terminal part. In females, the most important characters are: (1) shape of median plate; (2) number of coils of insemination duct; (3) shape and size of spermathecae; and (4) position of insemination duct attachment to the spermathecae. <b>Distribution.</b> The genus is found in Europe (Iberian Peninsula), Africa (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger), and Asia (from Middle East to Xinjiang). The northern limit of its distribution lies in Xinjiang (44°N). Two Mediterranean species have wide ranges within North Africa and the Middle East. Only one Central Asian species, <i>H. sternbergsi</i> sp. n., has a fairly large range. All other species are known either from a single locality or from a few closely located points.
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 78-81, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.16.229, http://zenodo.org/record/576478
description: {"references": ["Thorell T (1870) On European spiders. Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientarium Upsaliensis 7 (3): 109 - 242.", "Dufour L (1831) Descriptions et figures de quelques Arachnides nouvelles ou mal connues et procede pour conserver a sec ces Invertebres dans les collections. Annales des Sciences Naturelles de Paris, Zoologie 22: 355 - 371.", "Foord SH, Dippenaar-Schoeman AS (2005) A revision of the Afrotropical species of Hersiliola Thorell and Tama Simon with the description of a new genus Tyrotama (Araneae: Hersiliidae). African Entomology 13 (2): 255 - 279.", "Roewer CF (1960) Araneae Orthognathae, Haplogynae und Entelegynae. Solifugen und Opilioniden. (Contribution a l'etude de la faune d'Afghanistan 23). Goteborgs Kunglige Vetenskaps och Vitterhets Samhalles Handlingar, B 8 (7): 3 - 53.", "Cambridge OP- (1872) General list of the spiders of Palestine and Syria, with descriptions of numerous new species, and characters of two new genera. Proceedings of the Zoological Society London 1871: 212 - 354.", "Blackwall J (1865) Descriptions of recently discovered spiders collected in the Cape de Verde Islands by John Gray, Esq. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (3) 16: 80 - 101.", "Liang T, Wang JF (1989) A new species of spiders of the genus Hersilia in Xinjiang. Journal of August 1 st Agricultural College 12: 56 - 58 [in Chinese].", "Kroneberg A (1875) Araneae. In: Fedtschenko AP, Puteshestvie v Turkestan [Voyage in Turkestan] Izvestiya Imperatorskago Obshchestva Lyubitelei Estestvoznaniya, Antropologii i Etnografii 19 (3), 1, I-IV: 1 - 55 [in Russian]."]}