Shinobius Yaginuma, 1991

Wang, Lu-Yu, Mu, Yan-Nan, Zhang, Feng, Marusik, Yuri M. & Zhang, Zhi-Sheng, 2024, First record of the spider family Trechaleidae Simon, 1890 (Araneae) from China, ZooKeys 1203, pp. 189-195 : 189-195

Genus Shinobius Yaginuma, 1991

Type species.

Cispius orientalis Yaginuma, 1967 .

Diagnosis.

Shinobius is similar to the South American genera Rhoicinus Simon, 1898 and Barrisca Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936 , by the lack of the retrolateral tibial apophysis and having a very large subtegulum composing almost a half of the bulb. However, Shinobius can be separated from Rhoicinus and Barrisca by the cymbial tip shorter than the bulb and a strongly sclerotized posteroretrolateral part of the cymbium (vs. tip of cymbium longer than bulb, basal part of cymbium not modified) and by the presence of a median plate in the epigyne (vs. absent). Shinobius differs from other genera considered in the family by the lack of an extending retrolateral tibial apophysis.

Description.

Carapace brown. Eight eyes arranged in two rows, posterior row strongly protruding. Fovea longitudinal. Cervical groove indistinct, radial furrows distinct. Chelicerae yellow brown, with three promarginal and three retromarginal teeth. Endites and labium yellow brown, longer than wide. Sternum yellow brown, shield-shaped, with brown setae. Legs yellow brown, with black pigmentation. Leg formula: 4213. Opisthosoma oval. Dorsum yellow brown, with black brown markings. Venter yellowish-brown.

Male palp: tibia without extending retrolateral apophysis (RTA), but with strongly sclerotized kind of hood; cymbium droplet-shaped, with tip shorter than bulb, spines and claws present or absent; posteroretrolateral part strongly sclerotized (Cs, Fig. 3 B ). Subtegulum large, almost half of bulb, with anterior margin slanting; median apophysis (Ma) short, located on retrolateral half of bulb; conductor finger-shaped, longer than wide; embolus with oval-shaped base, filamentous, round bent at about right angle, tip located close to tip of median apophysis.

Epigyne: epigynal plate slightly wider than long; with a wide septum in type species and round in S. cona sp. nov.; fovea divided by septum; septum terminates near epigastral fold.

Composition.

Shinobius cona sp. nov. and S. orientalis (Yaginuma, 1967) .

Relationships.

Shinobius is the only genus of the family found far away from the rest of the genera which are distributed in the Neotropical Realm. Shinobius lacks a developed tibial apophysis (extending in from the tibia) but has instead a kind of hood with a strongly chitinized anterior margin lacking in other members of the family except for Rhoicinus . Based on this similarity and the shape of the bulb, Sierwald (1993) considered the two genera in a separate subfamily Rhoicinae Simon, 1898 .

Distribution.

China (Xizang) and Japan (Fig. 4 ).

Figures

Figure 3. Shinobius cona sp. nov. male holotype (A – E), female paratype (F, G) A left male palp, ventral view B same, retrolateral view C right male palp, bulb, ventral view (overturn) D same, retrolateral view (overturn) E right male palp, median apophysis and embolus, dorsal view (overturn) F epigyne, ventral view G vulva, dorsal view.

Figure 4. Shinobius orientalis (Yaginuma, 1967) A female habitus, dorsal view B epigyne, ventral view C vulva, dorsal view. (courtesy of Francesco Ballarin).