Pikelinia brevipes, Magalhaes & Ramírez, 2019

Magalhaes, Ivan L. F. & Ramírez, Martín J., 2019, The Crevice Weaver Spider Genus Kukulcania (Araneae: Filistatidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 426, pp. 1-153 : 147

Pikelinia brevipes , comb. nov. ( Keyserling, 1883)

Filistata brevipes Keyserling, 1883: 221 . Female holotype from Peru, should be deposited in the University of Warsaw (“ In der Sammlung der Universität in Warschau ”), not located, probably lost.

Kukulcania brevipes: Lehtinen, 1967: 242 (incorrect transfer to Kukulcania ).

REMARKS: Most early authors lumped filistatids in Filistata when describing new species, and Keyserling (1883) was no exception. He described this species based on females from Peru and provided a verbose description, but no illustrations. Mello-Leitão (1946) presented a small revision of Neotropical filistatids and correctly recognized that New World species do not belong in Filistata , transferring most prithine species to the New World genera Filistatoides F.O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899 , Pikelinia Mello-Leitão, 1946 , or Malalistata Mello-Leitão, 1946 (= Pikelinia ). However, he overlooked Filistata brevipes , and this species remained listed in this genus along with F. hibernalis , F. tractans , F. arizonica , F. geophila , F. utahana , and F. hurca . When Lehtinen (1967) erected Kukulcania , he transferred all American Filistata to his newly created genus, including F. brevipes , despite the fact that he could not locate or examine its type specimen. As this species continued to be listed in Kukulcania, Brescovit and Santos (2013) thought the material they had collected from Peru belonged to this species and proceeded to present a redescription of what they believed to be conspecific with the type of Filistata brevipes . This type material could not be located by Lehtinen (1967), Brescovit and Santos (2013), by C.J. Grismado (in litt.), or by one of us (I.L.F.M.). It is not in the collections of the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw) ( Brescovit and Santos, 2013), nor could be found in other collections where some of Keyserling’s types are to be found (MCZ, NHM, OUNHM). At this point, the type material of Filistata brevipes should be regarded as lost. However, Keyserling’s (1883) description presents two key characters that allow us to unambiguously identify his species as as a Prithinae : (1) yellow palps and legs, the latter with two brown rings in all articles except the tarsi (“ Palpen und Beine gelb, die ersteren an den Endgliedern dunkler, die letzteren an allen Gliedern, mit Aus-nahme der Tarsen, mit zwei, mehr oder weniger deutlichen, braunen Ringen versehen ”), and (2) an inconspicuous calamistrum (“ ein Calamistrum ist an dem hinteren Beinpaar nicht zu bemerken ”). Yellow legs with brown rings are never present in Kukulcania (even in immature stages); this character is present in some Filistata (see Marusik and Zonstein, 2014) but is much more typical of Prithinae spiders (see Magalhaes, 2016, Magalhaes and Ramírez, 2017). The calamistrum in Filistatinae is on a crest, has broadened setae, and is generally very conspicuous (figs. 13F, 75D). Conversely, the calamistrum in Prithinae has unmodified setae and is not placed on a crest, and may be very difficult to distinguish among the other setae of the metatarsus ( Magalhaes, 2016: fig. 26D). If Filistata brevipes was a filistatine, it is unlikely that Keyserling would have overlooked its calamistrum, since in 1879 he clearly recognized the peculiar morphology of this structure in K. hibernalis (sub F. capitata ): “ Am Anfange an der Innenseite der Metatarsen des vierten Beinpaares befindet sich das Calamistrum, eine kurze kammförmige Erhöhung, die mit einer dichten Reihe nicht langer Stachelborsten besetzt ist. ” Thus, we can safely conclude that Filistata brevipes is a Prithinae , most likely in the genus Pikelinia . Its specific identity cannot be ascertained at this time: several species of Pikelinia occur in Peru (I.L.F. Magalhaes, unpublished data), and Keyserling’s description could apply to many of these. Considering this and the impossibility of examining the type specimen, this species might eventually need to be regarded as a nomen dubium, although not until a revisionary study of South American prithine spiders is carried out. Reinforcing our point of view, W.J. Gertsch applied the name “ Filistatoides brevipes (Keyserling) ” (a combination never formally proposed) to a Peruvian Pikelinia Mello-Leitão , and identified the Peruvian Kukulcania as a new species under the manuscript name “ Filistata tropica .”