Gertschiola, BRIGNOLI, 1981

HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2000, New World Pholcid Spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae): A Revision At Generic Level, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2000 (254), pp. 1-348 : 90-92

GERTSCHIOLA BRIGNOLI, 1981

Gertschiola Brignoli, 1981: 97 98 (type species by original designation Physocyclus macrostylus Mello-Leitao, 1941 ; examined).

DIAGNOSIS: Medium-sized (total length ~ 2 mm), eight-eyed pholcids with globular opisthosoma, relatively short legs, thin long procursus; distinguished from the similar Ibotyporanga by the armature of the male chelicerae (modified hairs instead of medially fused apophyses), and the tubular structure in the female internal genitalia (figs. 349, 354).

DESCRIPTION: Total length ~ 2 mm. Carapace monochromous, with shallow thoracic groove, eight eyes on moderately elevated ocular area, AME almost as large as other eyes. Distance PME-ALE small (~ 30 40% of PME diameter). Male clypeus unmodified. Male chelicerae frontally without apophyses, but with strong, distinctive hairs, with stridulatory ridges (figs. 344, 351). Male palps very long in relation to overall size (fig. 342); coxa without retrolateral apophysis, femur long and cylindrical, with small retrolateral apophysis proximally, procursus very long (figs. 346, 353); bulb with prolateroventral hooked apophysis and longer membranous element. Tarsal organ not examined. Legs relatively short (leg 1 about 4 5 × body length; tibia 1 l/d: 26 28), leg 1 always longest, leg 4 slightly longer than leg 2, leg 3 shortest; legs without dark rings; without spines, with curved hairs on metatarsi 1 and 2, few vertical hairs on tibiae and metatarsi (in G. macrostyla most hairs missing); retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 extremely distal (at 72 73%); tarsus with ~ 7 9 pseudosegments. Opisthosoma globular, densely covered with dark spots. Male epigastric system and spinnerets not examined.

Female in general very similar to male. A tubular structure originates medially near entrance to uterus externus (figs. 349, 354).

MONOPHYLY: The two species included share details of the male chelicerae (modified hairs frontally on a bulge), and the tubular structure in the female internal genitalia.

GENERIC RELATIONSHIPS: Gertschiola appears to be very close to Ibotyporanga , with which it shares the long palp, the thin procursus, and especially the proximal part of it, which is characteristically bent in a ventral direction and then makes a turn. The two genera are also almost identical in habitus. On the other hand, Gertschiola shares with two other short-legged New World genera ( Nerudia , Kambiwa ) and with the Old World genus Ninetis the ventral apophysis on the male bulb (figs. 321, 324, 335, 338, 346, 353).

DISTRIBUTION/COMPOSITION: Two species described, from western Argentina.

Gertschiola macrostyla (Mello-Leitao, 1941) Figures 342 350

Physocyclus macrostylus Mello-Leitao, 1941: 110 111, figs. 8 9. Brignoli, 1975: 36, fig. 2i.

Gertschiola macrostylus: Brignoli, 1981: 98 99, figs. 26 30.

TYPES: Male lectotype (designated by Brignoli, 1981), 13 (without palps) and 1♀ paralectotypes from Banado , Tucumán, Argentina ; no date (M. Birabén), in MLP (14630), examined .

DIAGNOSIS: Distinguished from G. neuquena , n. sp., by the broader procursus (compare figs. 346, 353), and the much shorter tubular structure in the female internal genitalia (compare figs. 349, 354).

MALE (lectotype): Total length 2.1, carapace width 0.9; leg 1: 8.8 (2.2+0.4 +2.6+2.9+0.6), tibia 2: 2.1, tibia 3: 1.7, tibia 4: 2.4; tibia 1 l/d: 26. Habitus as in fig. 342; entire prosoma light brown, only cara- pace with darker Y mark dorsally; thoracic groove very shallow (fig. 343); eight eyes on slightly elevated ocular area (figs. 342 343); distance PME-ALE about 35% of PME diameter. Sternum without humps. Chelicerae with modified hairs (in the type material most hairs are missing, but the strong hair bases on the frontal humps suggest that there were modified hairs just as in the other material examined and in G. neuquena ; cf. fig. 351), with stridulatory ridges laterally (fig. 344). Palps light brown, coxa without retro- lateral apophysis, femur proximally with stridulatory pick (modified hair) on prolateral side (arrow in fig. 345), inconspicuous apophysis on retrolateral side, tibia enlarged, procursus simple ribbon-shaped, S-curved apophysis (fig. 346), bulb with distinctive hooked apophysis and larger membranous embolar division (figs. 345 346). Legs ochre-yellow, no rings visible; without spines, without curved and vertical hairs (many hairs missing); retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 72%; tarsus 1 with ~ 7 8 pseudosegments (difficult to see). Opisthosoma globular, ochre, covered with indistinct darker spots, except ventrally; genital plate large, light brown, about rectangular.

FEMALE (paralectotype): Carapace width 0.9. In general very similar to male. Epigynum simple plate (fig. 350), internally with median, transparent blind tube (fig. 349; receptacle?); I could not find pore plates.

DISTRIBUTION: Mello-Leitao (1941) had specimens from Tucumán (types), La Rioja, and Catamarca (paratypes). I have not seen the paratypes, but only material from Tucumán and Catamarca.

MATERIAL EXAMINED: ARGENTINA: Tucumán: Banado: types above. Catamarca: Andalgalá, pitfall trap, creosote bush desert, Feb. 27, 1973 (F. A. Enders), 53 in

USNM; Joyango , 60 km S Andalgalá, Dec. 2, 1972 (F. A. Enders), 13 in USNM .

Figures

Figs. 342 346. Gertschiola macrostyla (Mello-Leitao), male. 342. Habitus, lateral view. 343. Prosoma, frontal view. 344. Chelicerae, frontal view. 345. Left palp, prolateral view (arrow points to stridulatory pick). 346. Left palp, retrolateral view. Scale lines: 0.5 mm (342 343, 345 346), 0.2 mm (344).