Castianeira arnoldii Charitonov, 1946

Marusik, Yuri M., 2009, On Central Asian Castianeira arnoldii Charitonov, 1946 (Araneae, Corinnidae), earlier known from juvenile specimens, Zootaxa 2226, pp. 66-68 : 66-68

Castianeira arnoldii Charitonov, 1946

Figs 1–6

Castianeira arnoldii Charitonov, 1946: 28 , f. 52, subadult female and subadult male.

Material examined: 1Ƥ, 1 subad. Ƥ, 1 subad. 3 & 1 juv. ( ZMMU), Uzbekistan, Surkhandarya Area, Termez Dist., W bank of Uchkyzyl reservoir, ca. 1.5 km E of Kaftarkhana, 350 m, 37º20’58”N 67º12’30”E, 28.04.2002 (A.Gromov).

Diagnosis. The epigyne of C. arnoldii is similar to that of C. flavimaculata Hu, Song & Zheng, 1985 (cf. Figs 254K, L in Song et al., 1999), known from the southern half of China. The two species can be easily separated by the smaller copulatory openings in C. arnoldii separated by 4 diameters (vs. less than 2 diameters in C. flavimaculata ) and the shorter insemination ducts in C. arnoldii .

Description. Total length 7.71. Carapace 3.25 long, 2.00 wide, cephalic and anterior part of thoracic region almost black, rest of carapace red-brownish ( Figs 1–2 ). Chelicerae, maxilla and labium black to dark brown. Basal two thirds of femur I black, apical third yellowish. Abdomen violet-black, with three wide light transverse bands in frontal half and small V-shaped stripe in posterior half. Bands and stripe are distinctly visible in juveniles only. Anterior part of abdomen with small scutum. Venter of abdomen with median band (between epigastral fold and spinnerets) lighter than rest of abdomen, and pair of transverse lateral median bands.

Epigyne as in Figs 3–5 . At first look it is possible to consider the adult female as juvenile, because the copulatory openings is small and the epigynal plate is of the same color as the rest of abdomen. The epigynal plate is fused with the book-lungs and forms a pre-epigastral scutum extending from the petiolus to the epigastral fold. The epigynal openings are small and separated from each other by 4 diameters, and by one diameter from the epigastral fold; insemination ducts wide near copulatory opening gradually tapering, terminal part of insemination duct 3 times thinner than near copulatory openings; insemination duct joins to receptacula at mid part; receptacula long, with widened ends, anterior parts heavily sclerotized and adjoining each other.

Comments. Description of this species was based on two subadults, female and male, from SE Uzbekistan, Yakkabagh (ca. 38º59’N, 66º40’E) and Aman-Kutan (ca. 39º50”N, 66º55’E) respectively. Types of this species are in Perm State University. Sergei Esyunin kindly checked the syntypes on my request and confirmed that the syntype female is subadult, although its size almost as large as an adult female (carapace 3.1 long and 2.0 wide). So far this species is known from only three localities ( Fig. 6).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 5. Diagnostic characters of the female of Castianeira arnoldii. 1 — habitus and pattern, dorsal; 2 — habitus and pattern, lateral; 3 — epigyne and pre-epigastral scutum, ventral; 4 — epigyne, ventral; 5 — epigyne, dorsal showing schematically the course of fertilization and insemination ducts. Scale: 1.0 mm (1 - 2), 0.5 mm (3), 0.2 mm (4) and 0.1 mm (5).