Paradonea Lawrence

Miller, Jeremy A., Griswold, Charles E., Scharff, Nikolaj, Řezac, Milan, Szűts, Tamas & Marhabaie, Mohammad, 2012, The velvet spiders: an atlas of the Eresidae (Arachnida, Araneae), ZooKeys 195, pp. 1-144 : 67

Paradonea Lawrence

Paradonea Lawrence, 1968: 116. Type species Paradonea striatipes Lawrence, 1968.

Note.

Paradonea contains four recognized species from southern Africa (Fig. 71). We examined specimens (including the primary types) of all four described species and propose one new species. Of these five, only one ( Paradonea variegata ) is known from the female as well as the male. Two species are particularly remarkable in their morphological distinctness: the type species, Paradonea striatipes , is large with distinct markings, an enlarged first leg with tibial brush, relatively small palpi with a distinctly bifid conductor, widely spaced median eyes, and PLE set near the front of the carapace; Paradonea splendens has a strongly raised cephalic region that occupies most of the cephalothorax and slightly overhangs the thoracic region, but the palpal morphology is fairly typical of Eresidae . Despite our skepticism about the monophyly of this group, we are not proposing nomenclatural changes at this time. We hope that this work may help catalyze new activity in this group, including the discovery of females and the collection of fresh specimens for DNA sequencing. Our phylogenetic analysis includes Paradonea variegata , the first Paradonea species to be sequenced and the first time Paradonea has been placed phylogenetically (Figs 51, S1). We do not offer a diagnosis of the genus but distinguish each species independently in the key and species diagnostic sections.

Spinneret spigot morphology was not investigated for any species in the genus.