Phenasurya Marathe & Maddison, 2025

Marathe, Kiran, Trębicki, Łukasz, Janik-Superson, Katarzyna, Samoh, Abdulloh, Zhang, Junxia & Maddison, Wayne P., 2025, Phenasurya daeng, a new genus and species of plexippine jumping spider (Salticidae, Plexippini, Plexippina) from Thailand, ZooKeys 1259, pp. 335-348 : 335-348

Phenasurya Marathe & Maddison gen. nov.

Type species.

Phenasurya daeng sp. nov., by monotypy.

Etymology.

The genus name Phenasurya is derived from the Greek “phen-”, referring to appearance, and the Thai “Surya”, referring to the sun. This alludes to the face of this elegant spider, red like the setting sun.

Remarks.

Phenasurya daeng is recovered as sister to cf. Colopsus (sensu Lin et al. 2024; Marathe et al. 2024 c) and Pancorius : ( P. daeng , (cf. Colopsus , ( P. dentichelis , P. petoti ))) (Figs 1 , 2 ). Although P. daeng clusters near Pancorius and cf. Colopsus — both of which possess palps with a strongly sclerotised, thin embolus and an epigyne with distinctive ECPs — P. daeng exhibits markedly different genitalic morphology, including a male palp with an unsclerotised, jasmine-flower-bud-shaped embolus and an epigyne lacking distinctive ECPs. Consequently, P. daeng cannot be assigned to either Colopsus or Pancorius without synonymizing the two genera or, if included in one of them, rendering that genus paraphyletic. Therefore, the establishment of a new genus to accommodate P. daeng is justified, as it preserves the validity of both Colopsus and Pancorius and maintains the monophyly of each genus.

Diagnosis.

Unique among plexippines in possessing a relatively lightly sclerotised embolus resembling a jasmine flower bud — broad at the base and gradually tapering to a blunt tip. The embolus arises terminally from an ovoid, bulky tegulum with a lobe, extends retrolaterally, and terminates distally. In contrast, its close relatives cf. Colopsus and Pancorius typically have a highly sclerotised, longer, thinner embolus on a round tegulum.

The female epigyne also distinguishes Phenasurya from these genera: Phenasurya lacks distinctive ECPs, bearing instead a shallow medial notch at the epigastric furrow, whereas cf. Colopsus and Pancorius have distinctly divided ECPs positioned slightly anterior to the epigastric furrow.

The body markings of Phenasurya recall some Asian Evarcha (e. g., E. bulbosa Żabka, 1985 ) as well as smaller, red-faced African Evarcha (e. g., E. culicivora Wesołowska & Jackson, 2003 ). However, the red face of Phenasurya is absent in Asian Evarcha , and the epigyne clearly separates the genera: Phenasurya lacks ECPs, whereas Evarcha has distinctly divided ECPs. The male palp of Phenasurya also differs from that of African Evarcha , which typically has a well-sclerotised, much longer, thinner embolus and a bifurcated RTA.

The carapace markings may resemble those of Burmattus , but the male palp readily distinguishes the two. Burmattus has a highly sclerotised, curved cutlass-like embolus, a roundish tegulum lacking a distinctive lobe, a retrolateral cymbial groove, and a long, dorsally curved RTA. In addition, unlike Phenasurya , Burmattus bears a distinctive ECP positioned anteriorly and away from the epigastric furrow.

The body markings and male embolus of Phenasurya also resemble those of the unrelated salticine genus Carrhotus , particularly C. qingzhaoae and C. taprobanicus . However, in Phenasurya the embolus emerges prolaterally, leaning retrolaterally from a well-defined tegulum, whereas in Carrhotus the embolus is placed medially, on a somewhat irregular tegulum, giving the appearance of a candle flame (embolus) atop a candle (tegulum). The abdominal pattern also differs: Phenasurya has a simple medial band, while Carrhotus typically bears spotty abdominal markings.

Description.

Because this is a monotypic genus, the species description also applies to Phenasurya ; see below.

Figures

Figure 1. Maximum-likelihood tree from RAxML analysis (best of 10 replicates) of a concatenated dataset of 3031 UCE loci. Numbers at the nodes are the percentage recovery of the clade based on 1000 bootstrap replicates. Phenasurya (marked in red) is recovered as sister genus to cf. Colopsus and Pancorius of clade 5 and distantly from Salticini (marked in blue).

Figure 2. Maximum-likelihood tree from IQ-TREE analysis (best of 1000 replicates) of a concatenated, partitioned dataset of four genes (28 S, 18 S, H 3, COI), constrained by the UCE topology. Node values indicate bootstrap support based on 1000 replicates. Phenasurya is recovered as monophyletic (bycatch + additional barcode data) and as sister to Colopsus and Pancorius. An asterisk preceding taxa denotes bycatch data corresponding to the UCE tree. Phenasurya (marked in red) is recovered well within Plexippina and are distantly placed from the expanded sampling of salticines (marked in blue).