Evarcha degeni sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E533B849-4A27-47B5-A1F3-22C1329FFE13

Fig. 16

Diagnosis

This species is related to Evarcha prosimilis Wesołowska & Cumming, 2008 . It can be recognized by the shape of the tibial apophysis. The apophysis of Evarcha degeni sp. nov. has only a small notch at the tip, whereas in Evarcha prosimilis the notch is larger and the apophysis has two tips of unequal length (compare Fig. 16F with Wesołowska & Russell-Smith 2000, sub E. similis: fig. 47).

Etymology

The specific name honours the Swiss eminent naturalist Edward Degen (1852–1922) who collected the type of this species.

Material examined

Holotype

UGANDA • ♂; Entebbe; E. Degen leg.; NHM.

Description

Male

General appearance as in Fig. 16A.

MEASUREMENTS. Cephalothorax length 3.8, width 2.8, height 1.6. Eye field length 1.6, anterior and posterior width 2.5. Abdomen length 3.7, width 2.9.

CARAPACE. Oval, chocolate brown, eyes encircled by black rings. Dorsum hairless, some whitish hairs on slopes of carapace. Chelicerae big, unidentati, with long white hairs on dorsal surface (Fig. 16B). Endites brown with whitish chewing margins, labium and sternum brown.

ABDOMEN. Ovoid, grey, lighter at frontal margin, poorly defined wide median light streak. Venter grey with three lines formed by white dots. Abdomen clothed in faint transparent hairs. Spinnerets grey.

LEGS. Brown, bearing long colourless hairs, spines brown. Tibia I with three pairs very short ventral spines, metatarsus with two pairs.

PALP. Brown, its structure shown in Fig. 16C–F. Tibial apophysis with shallow notch on top.

Female

Unknown.

Remarks

Probably the same species also occurs in Gabon (see Bodner & Maddison 2012: fig. 2b; MRB 238).