Description of the males of Euprosthenops australis Simon, 1898 and Euprosthenopsis pulchella (Pocock, 1902) (Araneae: Pisauridae)
Author
Cruz da Silva, Estevam L.
Author
Sierwald, Petra
text
Zootaxa
2014
3857
137
150
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2014/f/zt03857p150.pdf
journal article
zt03857p150
10.11646/zootaxa.3857.1.8
Euprosthenops
Pocock, 1897
Figs 1, 3-22
Euprosthenomma
Roewer 1955a: 148, synonymised by Blandin, 1974: 946.
Euprosthenops
; Platnick 2014.
Type
species.
Euprosthenops schenkeli Roewer
, 1955, designated by Blandin, 1974: 946.
Diagnosis. The representatives of
Euprosthenops
Pocock, 1897 resemble those of
Euprosthenopsis
Blandin,
1974 in
the following characters: foraging in webs (Fig. 1), anterior eye row extremely procurved (all eyes forming almost three rows) (Figs 5, 6) and anterior lateral eyes on strongly projected tubercles (Figs 5, 6). The two genera can be differentiated by the spider's position in the web;
Euprosthenops
moves under the web (Fig. 1) and
Euprosthenopsis
moves on the surface of the sheet web (Fig. 2). The male palpus of
Euprosthenops
possesses a large and wide distal tegular apophysis (
DTA
) (Figs 9-15) and a finger-like retrolateral tibial apophysis (
RTA
) (Figs 10, 12, 13, 17), males of
Euprosthenopsis
have a short and rounded distal tegular apophysis (
DTA
, Figs 27, 32) and a wide and concave retrolateral tibial apophysis (
RTA
, Figs 28, 34). Females of
Euprosthenops
resemble those of
Euprosthenopsis
by the presence of conspicuous lateral lobes (
LL
) and by the scape-like projection of the middle field (
MF
) (Blandin 1974: 938, figs 4
A
,
B
). They can be distinguished from
Euprosthenopsis
by the short spermathecae and by the very large and flattened copulatory ducts (
CD
) (Blandin 1974: 939, fig. 5
A
).
Distribution. Africa (Fig. 22).