Pronoides Schenkel, 1936

Zhang, Xiao-Xiao, Zhang, Feng & Zhu, Ming-Sheng, 2010, A review of the Asian orb weaving spider genus Pronoides (Araneae: Araneidae), Zootaxa 2642 (1), pp. 59-67 : 60

Pronoides Schenkel, 1936

Pronoides Schenkel, 1936: 119 ; Yin et al., 1997: 100; Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 309; Tanikawa, 2007: 89.

Type species. Pronoides brunneus Schenkel, 1936 .

Diagnosis. Pronoides can be recognized by the following characters: carapace about 1.2 times longer than its width; female, juvenile and adult, abdomen with a pair of obvious anterior humps dorsally ( Figs. 1 , 10 ); epigynal plate with a depression on each lateral side ( Figs. 2 , 11 ); male femora I with more than six prolateral macrosetae ( Figs. 6 , 16 ); palpal embolus strongly curved and L-shaped in prolateral view ( Figs. 9 , 13 ).

Pronoides is similar to Pronous Keyserling, 1881 in the arrangement of eyes, but can be distinguished from the latter by the following characters: the PMEs are far from the PLEs, while the PMEs are near to PLEs in Pronous ( Schenkel 1936, Levi 1995); the fourth legs are shorter than the first legs, while the fourth legs are longer than the first legs in Pronous ( Levi 1995) ; epigynum with scape, while a scape is absent from the epigynum of Pronous ( Levi 1995) .

Pronoides is similar to Cnodalia Thorell, 1890 in body shape, but can be distinguished from the latter by the following characters: abdomen longer than wide, while abdomen wider than long in Cnodalia ; epigynal scape longer than that of Cnodalia ; male femora I with more than six prolateral macrosetae, while with two or three prolateral macrosetae in Cnodalia .

Description. Carapace yellow brown, pear-shaped, longer than wide. Cephalic region raised. Both eye rows recurved, posterior eye row wider than anterior one. MOA trapezoidal, wider than long, narrower in front than in back; PMEs largest. Clypeal height is larger than AME diameter. Labium wider than long. Sternum shield-shaped, longer than wide. Legs strong, with a few macrosetae. Leg formula: 1243. Abdomen longer than wide, with a pair of anterior humps dorsally in females. Epigynal scape short and ligulate. Spermathecae one pair, large and spherical.

Male smaller, abdominal dorsum lacking a pair of anterior humps. Palpal patella with two long macrosetae; conductor membranous, median apophysis large, with a distal hook.

Composition. The genus Pronoides comprises two species, P. brunneus Schenkel, 1936 and P. sutaiensis n. sp., both distributed in the eastern Palaearctic.

Pronoides ampliabdominis Song, Zhang & Zhu, 2006 was described based on a single female holotype collected from Fanjing Mountains, Guizhou Province, China. To date, no male has been found. After reexamining the female holotype (deposited in MHBU, Hebei Province), we found its abdomen wider than long, a short epigynal scape with lateral rim, and in particular, legs I and II with extremely long prolateral tarsal claws. All of these characters conform to the diagnosis of Cnodalia , not Pronoides . We therefore transfer this species to Cnodalia , and form a new combination, Cnodalia ampliabdominis ( Song, Zhang & Zhu, 2006) new comb., see note below.

Figures

FIGURES 1–9. Pronoides brunneus Schenkel, 1936, 1–4, female. 1. Body, dorsal; 2. Epigynum, ventral; 3. Vulva, dorsal; 4. Cephalic region, frontal; 5–9, male. 5. Endites, labium and coxa I, ventral; 6. Femur I, prolateral; 7. Left male palp, expanded; 8. Same, retrolateral; 9. Same, prolateral. C = conductor; E = embolus; M = median apophysis; TA = terminal apophysis. Scale bars: 1, 1.0mm; 2–3, 7–9, 0.2mm; 4, 6, 0.5mm; 5, 0.25mm.

FIGURES 10–16. Pronoides sutaiensis n. sp., 10–12, female. 10. Body, dorsal; 11. Epigynum, ventral; 12. Vulva, dorsal; 13–16, male. 13. Left male palp, prolateral; 14. Same, expanded; 15. Same, retrolateral; 16. Femur I, prolateral. C = conductor; E = embolus; M = median apophysis; TA = terminal apophysis. Scale bars: 10, 1.0mm; 11–15, 0.2mm; 16, 0.5mm.