Telema tenella Simon, 1882

Wang, Chunxia, Ribera, Carles & Li, Shuqiang, 2012, On the identity of the type species of the genus Telema (Araneae, Telemidae), ZooKeys 251, pp. 11-19 : 13

Telema tenella Simon, 1882 Figs 1-5

Telema tenella Simon 1882: 205 (♂♀); Simon 1893: 284, f. 240, 244 (♂); Fage 1913: 510, pl. 48-49, f. 1-21 (♂♀); Yaginuma 1974: 15, f. 1 (♂); Le Peru 2011: 142, f. 176 (♂♀).

Type material.

Not examined.

Material examined.

1 ♂ and 1 ♀ (IZCAS), unnamed cave, Banys de la Preste to Prats of Molló, France [42°24.43'N, 2°24.37'E, 1097 meters], Carles Ribera leg.

Diagnosis.

Telema tenella differs from other congeners by the distinct shape of male palp and female spermatheca. It is most similar to Telema wunderlichi Song & Zhu, 1994, a species from Hunan, China, but can be distinguished by the shape of carapace, five tiny denticles on the retromargin of chelicerae (four in Telema wunderlichi ) and bent embolus (straight in Telema wunderlichi ).

Description.

Male (Fig. 2A). Total length 1.40. Carapace 0.60 long, 0.55 wide. Abdomen 0.70 long, 0.64 wide. Sternum 0.40 long, 0.34 wide. Carapace, chelicerae, endites and labium yellow. Sternum and legs yellowish-white. Carapace with one pair of setae on clypeus, three medially and four on ocular area. Eyeless. Chelicerae (Fig. 4E) with one tooth and four tiny granulous denticles on the promargin, and five tiny granulous denticles on the retromargin of fang furrow. Anterior edge of labium with 4 strong and 8 small bristles. Patella I–IV dorsally with one long seta distally, tibia III IV with one long seta dorsally (position 0.5). Leg measurements: I 4.40 (1.33, 0.23, 1.32, 0.93, 0.59); II 3.91 (1.17, 0.23, 1.09, 0.86, 0.56); III 2.87 (0.87, 0.19, 0.75, 0.62, 0.44); IV 3.54 (1.09, 0.23, 0.94, 0.75, 0.53). Abdomen blue, covered with long setae. Male palp (Figs 2 B–D, 4 A–B, D). Bulb light yellow, pyriform, with embolus the only projection erected distally; embolus lamellar, curving, short, approximately 1/5 the length of bulb, and weakly sclerotized at the distal part.

Female (Figs 3 A–B). Similar to male in coloration and general features. Total length 1.30. Carapace 0.60 long, 0.55 wide. Abdomen 0.65 long, 0.65 wide. Sternum 0.40 long, 0.34 wide. Leg measurements: I 4.37 (1.33, 0.23, 1.32, 0.93, 0.56); II 3.92 (1.09, 0.23, 1.25, 0.81, 0.54); III 2.88 (0.71, 0.19, 0.86, 0.59, 0.53); IV 3.58 (0.94, 0.23, 1.09, 0.78, 0.54). Genital area (Fig. 5A) with a row of setae on epigynal area and a row of stout setae posterior to epigastric furrow. Spermatheca (Figs 3 C–D, 5 B–C) elongate, transparent, and tube-shaped, with the distal part curving ventrally.

Distribution.

In Pyrenees: France ( Pyrénées-Orientales: caves Sainte-Marie and Can Britxot near La Preste; cave Sirach near Ria; caves Can Pey and La Fou near Arles-sur-Tech; copper mine near La Preste), Spain (Gerona, Cueva del Far).

Discussion.

The genus Telema contains 40 species distributed in Spain, France, Guatemala, Japan, Singapore, Borneo, Thailand, Vietnam, and China. Compared with the type species Telema tenella , some species in the genus have one prolateral apophysis on the cymbium; most species from China have a lager body size, more pigmented bodies, stronger embolus; and the species from Singapore, Borneo, and Thailand have different spermatheca in the female, either thin and strongly spiral or short and swelling. The taxonomic status of the species in Telema needs to be studied further as well as distributional limits of the genus.