Phonotimpus schulzefenai (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936)

Chamé-Vázquez, David, Guzmán-García, Carlos Ernesto & Maldonado-Carrizales, Juan, 2023, Two new species of Scotinella Banks, 1911 (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Mexico, with a discussion on the female genitalic morphology and intraspecific variation, Zootaxa 5351 (4), pp. 453-466 : 464

Phonotimpus schulzefenai (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936)

Gosiphrurus schulzefenai Chamberlin & Ivie, 1936: 14 , plate 2, figs 15–16.

Drassinella schulzefenai —Platnick & Ubick, 1989: 3.

Phonotimpus schulzefenai — Chamé-Vázquez, Campuzano & Ibarra-Núñez, 2021: 575 , figs 3A–J, 4A–G.— Platnick, Chamé-Vázquez & Ibarra-Núñez, 2022: 39 , figs 263–266, 311–314.

Material examined. 1 ♀ ( CARCIB-Ar-4974 ): MEXICO: Michoacán, Ario de Rosales , ~ 5 km N Urapa (19.14752°N, 101.6619°W, 2114 m), pine forest, pitfall trapping, C. Guzmán leg., 30/XI/2016 - 02/XII/2016; 1 ♁ ( CARCIB-Ar-4975 ), Morelia , 1.2 km E of San Miguel del Monte (19.617°N, 101.12167°W, 2236 m), F. Morales, W. Linares, E. Olivares leg., 24/VII/2019; 1 ♁ ( CARCIB-Ar-4976 ), same data as for preceding, except 1 km E of San Miguel del Monte (19.61666°N, 101.12488°W, 2199 m) .

Natural history. This species inhabits pine forest floor and organic avocado orchards in Michoacán ( Guzmán-García et al. 2018) and is sympatric with S. garman sp. nov. Males were found in July, whereas the female in November. This species is also sympatric with Phonotimpus padillai Chamé-Vázquez, Campuzano & Ibarra-Núñez, 2021 in pine-oak forest floor in the State of Mexico ( Chamé-Vázquez et al. 2021).

Distribution. MEXICO: Guerrero (Chamberlin & Ivie 1936), Ciudad de México, Estado de México ( Chamé-Vázquez et al. 2021), Michoacán (data provided here), and San Luis Potosí ( Platnick et al. 2022).

Remarks. One male has the ventral longitudinal bands of opisthosoma diffused and short, restricted to the posterior half, compared to those described by Chamé-Vázquez et al. (2021). Also, the subdistal expansion of the RTA is somewhat less prominent, but the other male specimen matches the images of Platnick et al. (2022). Until now, this species is the only Mexican phrurolithid with broad distribution, whereas all the remaining Mexican species seem endemic to restricted areas. Furthermore, it is the first species of Phonotimpus recorded from western Mexico, far beyond previous records.