Accepted by M. Ramirez: 24 Oct. 2009; published: 17 Nov. 2009 65

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Zootaxa 2291: 65–68 (2009) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Correspondence

Redescription of Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) with first description of the male

YURI M. MARUSIK1,3 & MYKOLA M. KOVBLYUK2

1Institute for Biological Problems of the North, RAS, Portovaya Str. 18, Magadan 685000, Russia. E-mail: yurmar@mail.ru2Zoology Department, V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University, Yaltinskaya Str. 4, Simferopol 95007, Ukraine. E-mail: kovblyuk@mail.ru 3Corresponding author: E-mail: yurmar@mail.ru

Minosiella Dalmas, 1921 is a small genus of Gnaphosinae spiders comprising only six species known from western Palaearctic, ranging from Algeria to Afghanistan (Platnick, 2009). Males of this genus can be easily recognized thanks to strong cymbial spines (Figs 1–3, 9–11). Four species of Minosiella are known from both sexes, and two from females only. One of the latter, Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958 was reported from Turkmenistan and from the Aral Sea (Ovtsharenko & Fet, 1980; Krivokhatski & Fet, 1982; Mikhailov, 1997). Although this species was reported several times from the former Soviet Union and not less than 450 specimens of M. intermedia have been collected in Karakum Desert (Krivokhatski & Fet, 1982), the male of this species was not described yet.

While studying some material from Turkmenistan collected by A.V. Gromov we found one sample that contained females and the male of M. intermedia. Therefore in this paper we provide the first description of the male of M. intermedia and further records of the species in Turkmenistan.

Specimens were photographed using an Olympus Camedia C-5050 camera attached to an Olympus SZX12 stereomicroscope. The focal planes were combined using “CombineZM” image stacking software. Material presented herein will be deposited in the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (ZMMU). All measurements are given in mm.

The following abbreviations have been used in the text: a—apical; d—dorsal; pl—prolateral; rl—retrolateral; v —ventral.

Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958Figs 1–15

M. i. Denis, 1958: 94, f. 16 (♀).

Material examined. TURKMENISTAN. 1 ♂, 4 ♀♀ (ZMMU), Mary Area, Kushka District, ca 1.5 km NNE of Chemenibit, Kushka River valley, right riverside, ca. 520 m (35°28'21" N, 62°24'32" E), 5.04.2002 (A.V. Gromov).

Diagnosis. M. intermedia is very similar to M. pallida (L. Koch, 1875) (cf Dalmas, 1921: f. 116, 119) from which it can be distinguished by the outgrowth on the male palpal femur and the wider posterior part of the epigynal fovea (width of anterior and posterior parts equal in width in M. pallida). From the generotype, M. mediocris Dalmas, 1921 (cf. Levy, 1995; Murphy, 2007), it differs by the shape of the male palp and of the epigyne.

Description. Measurements (♂/♀): total length 4.4/3.8; carapace 1.9/2.1 length, 1.6/1.7 width. Abdomen length 2.3/2.3. Length of leg segments (♂/♀):

femur patella tibia metatarsus tarsus

I 1.4 / 1.4 0.8 / 0.8 1.0 / 0.9 0.8 / 0.8 0.6 / 0.6

II 1.3 / 1.3 0.8 / 0.8 0.8 / 0.8 0.8 / 0.8 0.6 / 0.6

III 1.2 / 1.2 0.7 / 0.7 0.7 / 0.6 1.2 / 1.0 0.7 / 0.6

IV 1.7 / 1.6 0.8 / 1.0 1.1 / 1.1 1.6 / 1.5 0.8 / 0.8

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TERMS OF USEThis pdf is provided by Magnolia Press for private/research use. Commercial sale or deposition in a public library or website is prohibited.

Cheliceral teeth are lacking, but a serrate keel on the cheliceral retromargin (as in Gnaphosa Latreille, 1804) is present. Scutum is absent.

Leg spination (♂). Femur: I – d 1-1, pl 1; II – d 1-1-1, pl 1; III – d 1-1-1, pl 1, rl 1; IV – d 1-1-1, pl 1, rl 1. Patella: III – d 1, pl 2-2. Tibia: I – pl 1, v 1-1-1(a); II – pl 1, v 1-1-2(a); III – d 1-2, pl 2-1-2, rl 1-1, v 2-2-2(a); IV – pl 1-1, rl 1-1-1, v 1-2-2(a). Metatarsus: I – v 2; II – v 2-2; III – pl 2-2-2, rl 1-1-1, v 2-2(a); IV – pl 1-2-2, rl 1-1-2, v 1(pl)-1(pl)-2(a).

Leg spination (♀). Femur: I – d 1-1, pl 1; II – d 1-1-1, pl 1; III – d 1-1-1, pl 1, rl 1; IV – d 1-1-1, pl 1, rl 1. Patella: III – pl 2-2, rl 1. Tibia: I – v 1; II – pl 1, v 1-1; III – d 1-1, pl 2-1-2, rl 1-2-1-1, v 1-1-2(a); IV – pl 1-1, rl 1-1, v 1-1-2(a). Metatarsus: I – v 2; II – v 2-1(a); III – pl 2-2-2, rl 1-1-2, v 2-1-2(a); IV – pl 1-2-2, rl 1-2-2, v 1-1-2(a). Tarsus: IV – rl 1.

Carapace, sternum, legs and palps yellow-brown (Figs 7–8). Chelicerae brown. Abdomen yellow-grey. Male palp as in Figs 1–4, 9–11, femur with thick retrolateral process, tibia with long and thin RTA, cymbium like in

other species with thick spines, embolus in basal part with membranous outgrowth.

FIGURES 1–6. Copulatory organs of Minosiella intermedia. 1—male palp, retrolateral; 2—male palp, ventral; 3—male palp, prolateral; 4—segments of male palp (without bulbus); 5—epigyne, ventral; 6—epigyne, dorsal. Scale = 0.1 mm.

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FIGURES 7–15. Habitus of female and copulatory organs of Minosiella intermedia. 7—habitus, dorsal; 8—habitus ventral; 9 male palp, ventral; 10—male palp, retrolateral; 11—male palp, dorsal; 12–14—epigyne, ventral; 15—epigyne, dorsal. 14–15—after maceration. Scale = 0.1 mm if not otherwise indicated. Abbreviations: Af—anterior part of fovea; Pf—posterior part of fovea; Sc—scape.

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Epigyne as in Figs 5–6, 12–15, with scape (Sc), variable in length, fovea narrow variable in shape, anterior part (Af) slightly wider than scape, thinnest part twice thinner than the anterior one, the posterior (Pf) part wider than the anterior one; receptacula long, tube like, bent in the anterior part.

Distribution. This species was described on the basis of six females and seven juveniles from Pirzada (environs of Kandahar). Besides type locality it was reported from Turkemistan (Ovtsharenko & Fet, 1980; Krivokhatskii & Fet, 1982) and Aral Sea (Ovtsharenko, 1992).

Habitat. In Karakum (=Gara Gum) Desert M. intermedia was found in rodent burrows where they live in silken tubes (Krivokhatskii & Fet, 1982).

Comments. Judging from the figures provided by Dalmas (1921, figs 16, 19) for M. pallida there is a possibility that M. pallida and M. intermedia are synonyms. While the male of M. pallida is not sufficiently known, the epigynal fovea of the two species are clearly different.

Acknowledgements

This project was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant No. 09-04-01365-а. We wish to thank V.I. Ovtsharenko and M. Chatzaki for important comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

References

Dalmas, R. de. (1921) Monographie des araignees de la section des Pterotricha (Aran. Gnaphosidae). Extrait des Annales Societe entomologique de France, 89, 233–328.

Denis, J. (1958) The 3-th Danish expedition to Central Asia. Zoological results 22. Araignees (Araneidea) de l'Afghanistan. 1. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening, 120, 81–120.

Krivokhatskii, V.A. & Fet, V.Ya. (1982) Spiders (Aranei) from the rodent burrows in East Karakum. Problems of desert development, 4, 68–75. [in Russian].

Mikhailov, K.G. (1997) Catalogue of the spiders of the territories of the former Soviet Union (Arachnida, Aranei). Moscow: Zoological Museum of the Moscow State University. 416 pp.

Murphy, J.A. (2007) Gnaphosid genera of the world. British Arachnological Society, St Neots, Cambs, 2, 93–605. Levy, G. (1995) Revision of the spider subfamily Gnaphosinae in Israel (Araneae: Gnaphosidae). Journal of Natural

History, 29, 919–981. Ovtsharenko, V.I. (1992) Modern distribution of spiders of the tribe Pterotrichini (Aranei, Gnaphosidae). The fauna and

ecology of spiders, scorpions and pseudoscorpions of the USSR. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute AS USSR, 226, 129–131 [in Russian].

Ovtsharenko, V.I. & Fet, V.Ya. (1980) Fauna and ecology of spiders (Aranei) of Badhyz (Turkmenian SSR). Entomologicheskoye obozreniye, 59, 2, 442–447. [in Russian].

Platnick, N.I. (2009) The World Spider Catalog. Version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html (Accessed 8 April 2009).

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