Metagonia wayuu Huber, 2025

Huber, Bernhard A. & Meng, Guanliang, 2025, New species of Metagonia Simon with directionally asymmetric male and female genitalia (Araneae, Pholcidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 1026, pp. 199-235 : 206-216

Metagonia wayuu Huber sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

Figs 1C – D, 2C – D, 8 – 12

Metagonia mariguitarensis – Huber & Villarreal 2020: 179 (misidentification; specimens from Falcón only). — Huber et al. 2022: 678 (molecular data, specimen M092 Metagonia mariguitarensis Ven 20-149).

Diagnosis

Easily distinguished from most known congeners (except M. mariguitarensis and M. uca sp. nov.) by strongly asymmetric male palps ( Fig. 8), by male chelicerae with pair of strong lateral protrusions ( Fig. 10A), and by female external and internal genitalia ( Figs 11 – 12; epigynum with posterior semicircular process, or ‘scape’; internal genitalia with complex system of pouches, ducts, and folds). Distinguished from M. mariguitarensis by male chelicerae with pointed rather than rounded distal apophyses ( Fig. 10A), by main branch of left procursus without distinctive ventral indentation (compare Fig. 4C with Fig. 9C), by absence of hair-like process on right procursus (compare Fig. 4D with Fig. 9D), and by stronger palpal asymmetry, i.e., absolutely and relatively bigger right palp (e.g., right/left tibia diameter>2.6 vs <2.5; see also Fig. 22). Further distinguished from M. uca by different color pattern on carapace (both in males and females; Fig. 2), by smaller size and shorter legs (e.g., male tibia 1<5.0 vs> 6.5; female tibia 1<4.0 vs> 5.5), and by female genitalia (epigynal scape without asymmetric groove; compare Fig. 11B with Fig. 16B).

Etymology

The species name honors the Wayuu, an indigenous ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.

Type material

Holotype

COLOMBIA – La Guajira • ♂; Tomarrazón ; 11.0701° N, 72.9357° W; 310 m a.s.l.; 19 Sep. 2022; B.A. Huber leg.; degraded forest along river; MUSENUV Ar 3531.

Paratypes

COLOMBIA – La Guajira • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for holotype; MUSENUV Ar 3532 • 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for holotype; ZFMK Ar 24780 .

Other material examined

COLOMBIA – La Guajira • 4 ♀♀, in pure ethanol; same collection data as for holotype; ZFMK Col290 (voucher of UH288; one abdomen cleared and transferred to ZFMK Ar 24780) .

VENEZUELA – Falcón • 1 ♀; forest near Santa Cruz de La Alegría ; 10.8795° N, 68.4949° W; 100 m a.s.l.; 15 Feb. 2020; B.A. Huber, O. Villarreal M. and Q. Arias C. leg.; ZFMK Ar 22013 • 4 ♀♀, in pure ethanol; same collection data as for preceding; ZFMK Ven20-149 (voucher of M092) .

Description

Male ( holotype)

MEASUREMENTS. Total body length 2.8, carapace width 0.75. Distance PME–PME 170 µm; diameter PME 90 ×110 µm; distance PME–ALE 25 µm; AME absent. Leg 1: 18.7 (5.0 + 0.4+4.7+ 7.6+1.0), tibia 2: 2.8, tibia 3: 1.8, tibia 4: 2.8; tibia 1 L/d: 59; diameters of leg femora (at half length) 0.10; of leg tibiae 0.08.

COLOR (in ethanol). Carapace pale whitish ochre, with median brown mark including ocular area ( Fig. 2C), clypeus not darkened; sternum whitish; legs whitish ochre, patellae and tibia-metatarsus joints brown; abdomen whitish, dorsally with few dark marks.

BODY. Habitus as in Fig. 1C. Ocular area slightly raised. Carapace without thoracic groove. Clypeus with sclerotized rim (sclerotized rim narrower than in M. uca sp. nov.; cf. Fig. 15A). Sternum wider than long (0.54/0.46), unmodified. Abdomen approximately twice as long as wide, dorso-posteriorly pointed.

CHELICERAE. As in Fig. 10A – B; with pair of lateral conical processes, pair of distal frontal processes set with ~23 modified (globular) hairs each, and pair of slightly diverging apophyses in front of fang joints.

PALPS. As in Fig. 8; coxa unmodified, apparently symmetric; trochanter with short rounded ventral process, apparently symmetric; all other segments directionally asymmetric, see below; femur with distinct process on prolateral-ventral side; procursus consisting of main branch and ventral hinged process; genital bulb simple, consisting of globular part and embolus.

ASYMMETRY. Right femur rather cylindrical, with cylindrical prolateral-ventral process; left femur smaller, distally strongly widened, and with conical prolateral-ventral process. Right tibia much bigger than left tibia (maximum diameter in lateral view 0.56 – 0.61 vs 0.21 – 0.22). Right procursus consisting of strongly sclerotized main branch (distally the sclerite is partly internal, covered by weakly sclerotized semitransparent cuticle) and weakly sclerotized semitransparent ventral hinged process; left procursus much smaller, with slender main branch, with distally widened and heavily sclerotized ventral hinged process. Right genital bulb with small globular part (diameter 0.27 – 0.29) and long slender embolus; left genital bulb with larger globular part (diameter 0.36 – 0.38) and with shorter and strongly widened embolus (similar to M. uca sp. nov.; cf. Fig. 15B – C).

LEGS. Without spines, without curved hairs, without sexually dimorphic short vertical hairs; retrolateral trichobothrium of tibia 1 at 9%; prolateral trichobothrium absent on tibia 1; tarsus 1 with ~20 pseudosegments, very indistinct except distally.

Variation

Males

Tibia 1 in three other males: 4.2, 4.2, 4.5. Color pattern on carapace consistent but pattern on abdomen variable, entirely whitish or with black and white marks dorsally.

Females

In general very similar to male ( Fig. 1D) but carapace pattern limited to black lines ( Fig. 2D), clypeus unmodified, sternum color variable, in some females with brown marks near leg coxae or entire sternum speckled; abdomen color variable as in males. Tibia 1 in ten females: 3.6 – 3.9 (mean 3.7). Epigynum ( Fig. 11) simple, mostly weakly sclerotized, posteriorly with sclerotized scape, apparently symmetric; internal asymmetric structures visible through cuticle; posterior epigynal plate short and indistinct. Internal genitalia ( Figs 10C, 12) with sclerotized receptacle on right side, with complex system of pouches, ducts, and folds (apparently similar to M. mariguitarensis ; cf. Huber 2004: figs 1 – 2); with pair of oval pore plates (possibly slightly asymmetric, but this might be an artifact of preparation).

Barcodes

We sequenced two specimens from two localities (geographic distance: 485 km) ( Table 1; Fig. 23). The CO1 distance was 1.7% ( Table 2). Distances to the other three species treated herein ranged from 15.5 to 20.3%.

Distribution

Known from northern Colombia ( La Guajira) and northwestern Venezuela ( Falcón) ( Fig. 24).

Natural history

At the type locality, the spiders were collected from palm and Heliconia L. leaves in a disturbed forest remnant along a river. The locality was shared with Mesabolivar eberhardi Huber, 2000 and an undescribed species of Chibchea Huber, 2000 . In Falcón, the five females were collected close to the forest margin of a well-preserved forest. They shared the locality with two further representatives of Metagonia , M. latigo Huber, 2020 and M. guttata Huber, 2020 . The latter species seemed to share the same large dicot plant leaves with M. wayuu sp. nov. ( Huber & Villarreal 2020).