Papuaneon, a new genus of jumping spiders from Papua New Guinea (Araneae: Salticidae: Neonini)
Author
Maddison, Wayne P.
text
Zootaxa
2016
4200
3
437
443
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4200.3.9
8bbe4b55-50d2-4612-9145-78fb5d105ced
1175-5326
187215
66416B99-751B-4B33-BF76-45AF4A26650B
Papuaneon
Maddison
,
new genus
Type species:
Papuaneon tualapa
Maddison
,
sp. nov.
Etymology.
A combination of Papua and
Neon
. Grammatically masculine.
Diagnosis.
The embolus of
Papuaneon
arises on the dorsal-terminal side of the bulb, hidden behind the tegulum (
Figs 4‒5
), unlike
Neon
, whose embolus arises on the prolateral side of the bulb (
Logunov 1998
). As the embolus emerges from the terminal end of the bulb, it twists into a spiral unlike any seen in
Neon
. The female has a swollen tarsus of the palp, and a row of macrosetae along the ventral edge of the first leg femur. The body is larger than usual for
Neon
, more hirsute. Further consideration of the distinctness of
Papuaneon
is given below under Phylogeny.
Papuaneon
(like
Neon
) could be confused with the distantly related euophryines, of which there are some similarly small-bodied representatives in Australasia (e.g.,
Zabkattus
Zhang &
Maddison, 2012
;
Barraina
Richardson, 2013
;
Frewena
Richardson, 2013
).
Papuaneon
, however, lacks the euophryines’ distinctive loop of the spermophore in the retrolateral half of the tegulum and the open spiral of the embolus.
Barraina
, which appears close to
Laufeia
Simon, 1889
by the palp and body form, lacks the clearly spiral embolus, but has the typical euophryine spermophore loop.
Ananeon
Richardson, 2013
differs from
Papuaneon
in having the eyes on rounded mounds, a distinctly different path of the spermophore through the tegulum, and windows on the epigyne (
Richardson 2013: figs 6, 8 and 4, respectively
). These windows indicate
Ananeon
may be a euophryine (see
Zhang & Maddison 2015
), as
Richardson (2013)
suggests. In addition, Richardson’s description of
Ananeon
makes no mention of two distinctive features of
Papuaneon
, the swollen female palp and the notably long macrosetae on the first tibia.
Although small-bodied,
Papuaneon
is not as small as
Neon
typically is. It resembles a small squat euophryine. As with
Neon
, the Mopsini, and some viciriines, the embolus appears clearly distinct from the tegulum and thus free to move (
Fig. 4
). I did not dissect or expand the palp to test this because only a single male is known.