Loureedia lucasi (Simon, 1873)

Szűts, Tamás, Szabó, Krisztián, Zamani, Alireza, Forman, Martin, Miller, Jeremy, Oger, Pierre, Fabregat, Magali, Kovács, Gábor & Gál, János, 2023, A Study in Scarlet: Integrative Taxonomy of the Spider Genus Loureedia (Araneae: Eresidae), Diversity (238) 15 (2), pp. 1-26 : 18-21

Loureedia lucasi (Simon, 1873) .

Figures 2C , 4D , 5 and 13O .

Eresus lucasi Simon, 1873: 353 , plate. 10, Figs 8 and 9 (♂♀) [8] (original description).

Loureedia lucasi: Henriques et al. 2018: 5 , Fig 1a–h (♂♀) [3]; Zamani and Marusik 2020: 242, Fig 3h (♂) [6].

Type material. Syntypes: male and female ( NMHN), ALGERIA: Oran (leg. H. Lucas) (not examined).

Diagnosis. The male palp of L. lucasi ( Figure 4D ) is similar to that of L. maroccana ( Figure 4E ) in that it has a relatively short stem of conductor and the retrolateral arm of the conductor is longer than the prolateral arm, but differs from it, as both arms of the conductor bear blunt tips ( Figure 4D ) vs. pointed ( Figure 4E ), it has shallower concavity on the frontal margin of the conductor ( Figure 4D ), and there is a distinct invagination apically on the ectal margin of the stem of the conductor ( Figure 4E ). The two species are also very similar in the male coloration pattern but differ due to the dark posterior part of the carapace in L. lucasi ( Figure 2C ) vs. crimson red in L. maroccana ( Figure 2B ). Moreover, the male of L. lucasi has more distinct white spots on the dorsal abdominal surface ( Figure 2C ).

Description. Henriques et al. [3] did not provide any description of the male, and the specimen was not available for us to examine.

Female. See Henriques et al. [3].

Variation. No information.

Phenology. No information.

Distribution. Algeria (Oran Province) (see Figure 5 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Males of five species of Loureedia. (A) L. annulipes from Israel, in a defensive posture, with the bifid conductor visible (arrow) (photo: Tamás Szűuts); (B) L. annulipes from Israel (photo: Tamás Szűuts); (C) L. maroccana from Morocco (photo: János Gál); (D) L. jerbae from Djerba, Tunisia (photo: Stanislav Macík); (E) L. colleni from Spain (photo: Magali Fabregat); (F) L. phoenixi from Iran (photo: Alireza Zamani). (C) reproduced from Gál et al. [2]; (F) reproduced from Zamani and Marusik [6].

Figure 2. Male coloration patterns of six species of Loureedia. (A) L. colleni; (B) L. maroccana; (C) L. lucasi; (D) L. jerbae; (E) L. annulipes; (F) L. phoenixi.

Figure 3. SEM images of the conductor and embolus of Loureedia maroccana, male paratype. (A) oblique ventral view; (B) oblique retrolateral view; (C) apico-retrolateral view; (D) apico-prolateral view; (E) retrolateral view; (F) apico-ventral view. Abbreviations: bcm: basal conductor margin, ecm: ectal conductor margin, em: embolus, fcm: frontal conductor margin, mcm: mesal conductor margin, pa: prolateral arm of the conductor, pal: lamella of prolateral arm, ra: retrolateral arm of the conductor, ral: lamella of retrolateral arm, sc: shoulder of the conductor, st: stem of the conductor. Scale bars: 0.25 mm.

Figure 4. Conductors of six species of Loureedia (ventral view). (A) L. phoenixi; (B) L. jerbae; (C) L. annulipes; (D) L. lucasi; (E) L. maroccana; (F) L. colleni. A, D, and F are based on Zamani and Marusik [6]. Line drawings by Mahla Pourcheraghi.

Figure 5. Distribution records of species of Loureedia. Color codes: yellow—L. colleni, blue—L. maroccana, white—L. lucasi, green—L. jerbae, khaki—L. annulipes (SAJ264 not shown), magenta—L. phoenixi, black dot—unidentified Loureedia specimen from Jordan [7].

Figure 8. Male palps of five species of Loureedia (prolateral view). (A) Loureedia phoenixi; (B) L. jerbae; (C) L. annulipes; (D) L. maroccana, holotype (after conductor was broken); (E) L. maroccana, holotype (conductor still intact); (F) L. colleni. Scale bar: 0.25 mm.

Figure 9. Habitats of three species of Loureedia. (A,B) L. annulipes from Israel (Reut Ein-Gil); (C) L. phoenixi from Iran (photo: Alireza Zamani); (D) L. colleni from Spain (photo: Magali Fabregat).

Figure 13. Intraspecific variation in the male palp of Loureedia maroccana Gál et al., 2017. (A–C) ventral view, (D–F) prolateral view. (A,D) non-type specimen; (B,E) paratype specimen; (C,F) fresh non-type specimen. Scale bar: 0.25 mm.