Olgania eberhardi Rix & Harvey, 2010

Rix, Michael & Harvey, Mark, 2010, The spider family Micropholcommatidae (Arachnida: Araneae: Araneoidea): a relimitation and revision at the generic level, ZooKeys 36 (36), pp. 1-321 : 93-94

Olgania eberhardi Rix & Harvey , sp. n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F8D1FB85-9B5D-4B80-B8F9-4F6E3DE358EC

Figs 179A, 182–183, 213

Type material. Holotype male: Splash Pot (JF-10), Junee-Florentine karst, Tasmania, Australia, sheet-web on moist wall of stream in cave (twilight and dark zones) to c. 40 m depth, 42°43'S, 146°34'E, 28.VIII.1987 (but probably 28.V.1987), S. Eberhard ( AMS KS97169 ).

Etymology. The specific epithet is a patronym in honour of Stefan S. Eberhard, whose pioneering work surveying, collecting and documenting the invertebrate cave fauna of Tasmania resulted in the discovery of many new species of troglobitic arthropods, including this species.

Diagnosis. Males of Olgania eberhardi can be distinguished from all other described congeners except O. excavata and O. weld by the presence of two prolateral, thorn-like macrosetae on the male pedipalpal tibia (Fig. 183A); and from O. excavata and O. weld by the complete absence of eyes (Fig. 182C).

Description. Holotype male: Total length 1.10. Carapace 0.54 long, 0.49 wide. Abdomen 0.73 long, 0.50 wide. Leg I femur 0.86. Cephalothorax, abdominal sclerites brown; legs, abdomen dark tan yellow. Carapace raised anteriorly, fused to sternum via pleural sclerites; dorsal surface of pars cephalica strongly convex in lateral view; carapace and sternum heavily punctate. Eyes absent. Chelicerae each with large, bulging anterior projection; promargin without peg teeth. Legs relatively long (leg I femur-carapace ratio 1.59); macrosetae absent. Abdomen subtriangular, covered with hair-like setae, each seta projecting from small sclerotic spot; dorsal scute and lateral sclerotic strips absent. Pedipalpal patella with retrolaterally-directed, hooked lRPA and strongly recurved, sickle-shaped distal apophysis; tibia with two thorn-like prolateral macrosetae; tegulum smooth, with curved, marginal ETR; embolus long (length> 5× width), looping around prolateral margin of bulb (Fig. 183).

Distribution. Known only from the cave Splash Pot in the Junee-Florentine karst of south-central Tasmania (Fig. 213).

Remarks. Olgania eberhardi is known only from a single cave in southern Tasmania, where it lives in sympatry with another troglobitic micropholcommatid, Micropholcomma junee (see above). It is completely blind with a large and distinctive pedipalp (Figs 182A–B), and is most similar to O. weld and O. excavata . The holotype specimen was collected from a sheet-web on the cave wall.