Delimitation and description of 19 new genera, a subgenus and a species of Salticidae (Araneae) of the world
Author
Prószyński, Jerzy
text
Ecologica Montenegrina
2016
2016-05-26
7
4
32
https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2016.7.1
journal article
10.37828/em.2016.7.1
2336-9744
13224403
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:4171B7E1-BE6F-48ED-85B4-4DC2C232A273
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.