New euophryine jumping spiders from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryinae)
Author
Zhang, Jun-Xia
Author
Maddison, Wayne P.
text
Zootaxa
2012
3476
1
54
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.282237
6f8bca96-6ca2-4bff-88b3-3b995e4a2529
1175-5326
282237
Genus
Anasaitis
Bryant, 1950
Small to medium sized, usually with iridescent scales. They are mainly ground dwellers and can be found in leaf litter, on rocks or in grass clumps. Chelicera usually has one bicuspid promarginal tooth and one retromarginal tooth. First tibia usually has three pairs of ventral macrosetae; first metatarsus has two pairs. Embolus usually is very short and not coiled. Tegulum usually has distinct proximal lobe. Epigynum usually lacks obvious window. Copulatory duct is short. Spermatheca is swollen. As indicated by
Bryant (1950: 169)
, this genus is probably close to
Corythalia
C. L. Koch
and can be distinguished from it mainly by the genitalic structure: the embolus of the male palp is usually short with the spiral highly reduced, and the female epigynum usually lacks a distinct window. The reduced embolic spiral is also seen in
Soesilarishius
Makhan 2007
(see
Ruiz 2011
) and
Popcornella
, both of which are small leaf-litter dwelling euophryines, with
Soesilarishius
found in South
America
and
Popcornella
endemic to Caribbean.
Anasaitis
can be distinguished from
Soesilarishius
by the presence of iridescent scales on the body and the highly reduced copulatory duct. It differs from
Popcornella
in the hairy appearance, the presence of iridescent scales on the body, and the extremely short embolus of the male palp. Unpublished molecular data also suggest that
Anasaitis
,
Soesilarishius
and
Popcornella
fall into three distinct clades and the reduced embolic spiral may have evolved independently in these genera.
Five species have been recorded from the Caribbean Islands and
USA
(
Platnick 2011
). Some other Caribbean species presently placed in
Corythalia
undoubtedly belong in
Anasaitis
instead based on their genitalic structures. Four new species from
the Dominican
Republic are described here.