Calapnita phasmoides Deeleman-Reinhold, 1986

Bernhard A. Huber, 2017, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Southeast Asian leaf-dwelling spider genus Calapnita Simon (Araneae, Pholcidae), Zootaxa 4219 (1), pp. 1-63 : 26-29

Calapnita phasmoides Deeleman-Reinhold, 1986

Figs 98–102

Calapnita phasmoides Deeleman-Reinhold, 1986b: 217 , figs 46–51, 59e (♂ ♀). Huber 2011: 55 (except specimens from Sumatra and Java; see C. anai ), figs 194–195 (not figs 70–71, 196–197, see C. phyllicola ).

Diagnosis. Males are easily distinguished from most congeners (except C. anai and C. deelemanae ) by simple appendix with small subdistal side-branch ( Fig. 101 ); from C. anai and C. deelemanae by tip of procursus (not strongly bent; with distinct retrolateral process; dorsal flat process not gradually but abruptly widening; Figs 98– 100 ); females of these three species and C. subphyllicola may be indistinguishable externally, but the slightly elongated and anteriorly converging pore plates might be distinctive of C. phasmoides ( Fig. 102 ).

Notes. For the present study, almost all material listed in Huber (2011) was restudied (except specimens from Sumatra because fresh material from the same locality in Sumatra was available; see C. anai below); in addition, the holotype from East Kalimantan, Borneo, deposited in RMNH ( ARA 9574), was also examined. As mentioned earlier ( Huber 2011), males from outside East and Central Kalimantan (at that time only Sumatra and Java, now also Sabah and Malay Peninsula) differ slightly from males from Borneo. All specimens from outside Borneo are here separated from C. phasmoides and formally described as C. anai (see below).

An additional very similar species seems to occur in Sabah, Ulu Senegang (5.36°N, 116.03°E, 3♂ 6♀, RMNH, ARA 17810–12 ). In males of this putative species, the procursus looks intermediate (in lateral view almost identical to C. anai ; in dorsal view with distinct retrolateral process as in C. phasmoides ; Figs 103–105 ). The appendix is very similar to C. phasmoides and C. anai ( Fig. 106 ). These specimens are all in very bad condition and the species is thus not formally described.

For the present study, the genitalia of one of the four females available from East and Central Kalimantan were cleared ( Fig. 102 ). It became obvious that the previously cleared female ( Huber 2011: figs 70–71, 196–197) from Tumbang Tahai, Central Kalimantan ( RMNH, ARA 17813), which at that time accompanied an unambiguous C. phasmoides male ( RMNH, ARA 17451), was a misidentified C. phyllicola . In contrast to C. phyllicola , the female internal genitalia of C. phasmoides are characterized by oval rather than drop-shaped pore plates and an unpaired rather than paired internal ‘sac’ ( Fig. 102 ).

Distribution. Known from East and Central Kalimantan only ( Fig. 281 ). Specimens from Sumatra and Java previously assigned tentatively to this species are here assigned to the newly described C. anai (see below).

Figures

FIGURE 281. Known distribution of the Calapnita phyllicola group, part 1 (cf. Fig. 282). The western Java record is based on a single female of uncertain identity. For details on the undescribed species in RMNH see C. phasmoides.

FIGURES 98 – 106. Calapnita phasmoides Deeleman-Reinhold (98 – 102; ♂ from Tumbang Tahai, RMNH, ARA 17451, ♀ from Sepaku, RMNH, ARA 17379) and C. sp. from Ulu Senegang (103 – 106; RMNH, ARA 17810, 17812). 98 – 100, 103 – 105. Left procursi, prolateral, dorsal, and retrolateral views. 101, 106. Left bulbal appendices (a), prolateral views (e, embolus; arrow points at membranous process). 102. Cleared female genitalia, dorsal view (arrow points at membranous sac). Scale lines: 0.5 mm (98 – 101, 103 – 106; all male structures at same scale), 0.3 mm (102).