Labahitha incerta, Magalhaes & Berry & Koh & Gray, 2022

Magalhaes, Ivan L. F., Berry, James W., Koh, Joseph K. H. & Gray, Michael R., 2022, Labahitha spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Filistatidae) from islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, European Journal of Taxonomy 805 (1), pp. 1-51 : 22-24

Labahitha incerta sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

Figs 14–15, 28D

Notes

This hitherto undescribed species, known from a single male, shares some characters with Wandella , such as a contrasting colouration ( Fig. 14A) and the lack of a true macroseta in metatarsus I ( Fig. 14D). On the other hand it presents characters typical of Labahitha , such as a subrounded clypeus ( Fig. 14E) (vs straight or sharp in Wandella ), and the paraembolic lamina divided in two parts and apparently with a ragged margin ( Fig. 15B, D). We decided to allocate this species in Labahitha provisionally until more data is collected, but the possibility that it belongs in the mainly Australian genus Wandella cannot be excluded.

Diagnosis

The male is most similar to L. marginata in the paraembolic lamina divided in two parts, with a rounded apex near the embolus; it differs by the less obvious fimbriations in the paraembolic lamina and the

bulb without a median constriction ( Fig. 15) (vs fimbriations more prominent, bulb with a clear median constriction).

Etymology

The name is an adjective meaning ‘uncertain’ and refers to the tentative placement of this species in this genus.

Type material

Holotype

AUSTRALIA • ♂; Queensland, Nipping Gully , site 5; 25.7° S, 151.43333° E; 240 m a.s.l.; 7 Jul. 1999; G.B. Monteith leg.; vine scrub; pyrethrum; QM S.78659.

Additional material examined

None.

Description

Male holotype (from Nipping Gully, Queensland, Australia, QM S.78659)

COLOURATION. Carapace cream with dark brown median pattern and clypeal markings, light brown median area, and slightly dark submarginal bands. Chelicerae, labium and endites cream, with a small light brown patch. Sternum cream with diffuse light brown patches along the border. Legs cream, with incomplete light brown rings in the base and apex of the femora, tibiae and metatarsi (except for leg I, with barely visible markings in femur and tibia only). Abdomen light brown, clothed with whitish setae, with a cream, oval, elongate patch in the first half and four transverse cream patches posteriorly; venter cream.

HABITUS. Anterior margin of the carapace subrounded, with unsclerotized tip. Eye apodemes present. Sternum subrounded.

MEASUREMENTS. Total length 2.91. Carapace length 1.22, width 1.02. Clypeus length 0.20. Eye diameters and interdistances: AME 0.08, PME 0.08, ALE 0.11, PLE 0.08, AME–AME 0.01, PME–PME 0.09. Palp: femur length 0.61, height 0.17, tibia length 0.43, height 0.15. Leg I: 6.27 (1.54, 0.37, 1.86, 1.53, 0.97). II: — (1.08, 0.32, 1.09, x, x). III: — (0.95, 0.35, 0.92, x, x). IV: 4.59 (1.24, 0.33, 1.23, 1.21, 0.58). Abdomen: length 1.63, width 1.08.

LEG MACROSETAE. Absent, but a ventral stronger seta in the apex of metatarsus I is present.

PALP ( Fig. 15). Cymbium horseshoe shaped, bulb suddenly narrowing towards embolus, sperm duct N-shaped, with a single coil, prolateral excavation very large and high, apparently with comb-like arrays of micro-teeth, paraembolic lamina free, prolaterally curved, with rounded apex, ending close to embolus apex, embolus short.

State of the specimen: has lost some setae from the legs and abdomen, left palp dissected, right legs I and II separated from the body at the patella-tibia joint.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution

Known only from the type locality in Australia, Queensland ( Fig. 1B).