Epicadus rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924

Machado, Miguel, Teixeira, Renato Augusto & Lise, Arno Antonio, 2018, There and back again: More on the taxonomy of the crab spiders genus Epicadus (Thomisidae: Stephanopinae), Zootaxa 4382 (3), pp. 501-530 : 516

Epicadus rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924

Fig. 16C

Epicadus rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924: 280 . Mello-Leitão 1929: 96, fig. 45; Silva-Moreira & Machado 2016: 292, figs 1D–F, 7–10, 15G–I, 16E, F; Machado et al. 2017: 448, figs 2B, C, S 13F.

Epicadus pallidus Mello-Leitão, 1929: 97 .

Other material examined. BRAZIL: Santa Catarina: 1 male, Concórdia, Rio Jacutinga , 27°15'53"S, 52°19'45"W, September 1988, Proj. Itá-Machadinho ( MCTP 527 ) . Rio Grande do Sul: 1 female, Nova Prata , 28°47'02"S, 51°36'28"W, 3 Januaty 1989, F.C. Quadros ( MCTP 36572 ) ; 1 female, Itaara, 29°34'60"S, 53°46'60"W, 19 December 2006, A.A. Lise (MCTP 21347); 2 males, Novo Hamburgo , 29°41'16"S, 51°08'00"W, 27 September 1986, C.J. Beckel ( MCTP 1081 ) ; 1 male, Novo Cabrais, Parque Witeck, 29°46'59"S, 52°58'19"W, 7 November 2008, R.G. Buss (MCTP 28460); 1 male, Nova Santa Rita , 29°51'02"S, 51°16'26"W, 23 May 2009, A. Oliveira ( MCTP 37281 ) ; 1 male, Viamão , 30°04'19"S, 51°05'49"W, December 1992, A.A. Lise ( MCTP 2828 ) ; 1 male, 12 May 1995 (MCTP 7800); 1 male, Guaíba , 30°06'32"S, 51°19'25"W, 26 August 1994, A.A. Lise ( MCTP 5432 ) ; 1 male, Cachoeira do Sul, Capané , 30°14'40"S, 52°57'40"W, 12 May 1993, R.G. Buss ( MCTP 3625 ) .

Diagnosis. Females of E. rubripes are similar to those of E. heterogaster in their stout and vertically oriented MS and in the projections above the ALE. However, they can be recognized by their “mask” pattern, which is composed of a pair of vertical dark lines on the AME and a pair of diagonal ones going from ALE to the lateral margin of the clypeus, merging to form an entire dark clypeal margin ( Fig. 16C ). They can also be distinguished from other species of the genus by their median posterior opisthosomal projection, which is much thicker and longer than the four lateral projections ( Fig. 16C ). The males present vertical projections above the ALE as in E. heterogaster , however, their opisthosoma has only three projections and the same color pattern as in the males of E. taczanowskii and E. trituberculatus (see Silva-Moreira & Machado 2016: figs 9A–E). Their unique palp is characterized by the embolous emerging form tegulum at nine o’clock position and by RTA short and wide and DTA pointing to the apex of the cymbium (see Silva-Moreira & Machado 2016: figs 10A–E, 15I).

Description. See Silva-Moreira & Machado (2016).

Distribution. BRAZIL: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina ( Fig. 17C ).

Figures

FIGURE 16. Female specimens in vivo. A Epicadus taczanowskii (RoeWer, 1951); B Epicadus dimidiaster sp. nov.; C Epicadus rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924 (adapted from Silva-Moreira & Machado 2016: fig. 1F); D Epicadus camelinus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869); E Epicadus heterogaster (Guérin-Méneville, 1829); F Epicadus trituberculatus (TaczanoWski, 1872). Photo credits:César Favacho (A); Arthur Anker (B); Almir Cândido de Almeida (C); Karl Kroeker (D); Edson Roberto (E); Edelcio Muscat (F).

FIGURE 17. Data of distribution records of Epicadus species compiled from Machado et al. (2015, 2017); Silva-Moreira and Machado (2016); present study.