On Venezuelan pholcid spiders (Araneae, Pholcidae)
Author
Huber, Bernhard A.
33607F65-19BF-4DC9-94FD-4BB88CED455F
Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany.
b.huber@leibniz-zfmk.de
Author
Villarreal, Osvaldo
679C385E-B068-4351-9D2F-97753E534C26
Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela. & Museu Nacional / UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
osvaldovillarreal@gmail.com
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2020
2020-10-01
718
1
317
journal article
10.5852/ejt.2020.718.1101
4069574
F9E9A91E-488C-4DB1-9361-E788E9AC5BC1
Systenita
Simon, 1893
Notes
Systenita
continues to be a monotypic genus. The newly described
Mecolaesthus fallax
Huber
sp. nov.
is superficially extremely similar (indistinguishable in the field) but fundamentally different in many details of genital morphology. Our preliminary molecular data (J.J. Astrin, B.A. Huber, unpubl.data) place
Systenita prasina
closer to the new genus
Boconita
Huber
gen. nov.
and to
Coryssocnemis
Simon, 1893
than to
Mecolaesthus fallax
Huber
sp. nov.
The superficial similarity with
Mecolaesthus fallax
Huber
sp. nov.
is thus most probably a result of convergent evolution due to microhabitat change and adaptation to the same microhabitat (underside of live leaves).