A new species of Mallinella Strand, 1906 (Araneae, Zodariidae) from South China

Abstract Background Only one zodariid species, Storenomorphalushanensis Yu & Chen, 2009 was found from Jiangxi Province. No other Mallinella species have been recorded from this Province. New information A new species, Mallinellashahu sp. n. is described from Jiangxi Province, China. Morphological illustrations, living photos and distribution map are given.


Introduction
The spider family Zodariidae Thorell,1881 is one of the most species-rich families recorded from the world (World Spider Catalog 2023). They usually live in leaf litter, woody debris, under stones or on the forest floor. Currently, there are 1264 species from 90 genera worldwide, with only 55 species belonging to eight genera being recorded from China. Most of them (55 species) are reported from the southern provinces of the country. At present, the genus Mallinella Strand, 1906 is the most diverse group in this family. According to the collecting information recorded on World Spider Catalog (2023), all of these Mallinella species are found from the southern provinces, such as Guangdong (one species), Guangxi (five species), Hainan (six species), Hunan (six species), Tibet (one species), Yunnan (four species), Guizhou (two species) and Zhejiang (one species). No species have been recorded from other provinces in this large country.
The genus Mallinella is characterised by the presence of a single row of ventral spines situated in front of the spinnerets, the palpal tibia with one or three apophyses, the conductor consisting of several parts, the embolic base connected to a tegulum via a thin membrane, the epigyne with a deep anterior median incision and the short and diverging copulatory ducts (Dankittipakul et al. 2012). More details, based on the sexual dimorphic characters of this genus, were not clearly revealed until Dankittipakul et al. published their work in 2012. Since then, species in the genus Mallinella started to be re-recognised by many surprising characters, such as chemosensitive hairs, proximal knob showing stridulating ridges, ordinary aculeate setae on femora I, chisel-shaped hairs on ventral part of tibia IV and the ventral spines in front of the spinnerets (Dankittipakul et al. 2012).
In the last three years, collections in Jiangxi Province in China led to the discovery of some new spider taxa, such as Agelenidae , Liu et al. 2020a, Corinnidae (Liu et al. 2022b), Phrurolithidae (Liu et al. 2020b, Liu et al. 2020c, Salticidae ( Liu et al. 2022a), Thomisidae (Liu et al. 2022c, Liu et al. 2022e, Li et al. 2022, Gnaphosidae (Liu et al. 2022d), Trachelidae (Zhang et al. 2022) and now Zodariidae (this study). These discoveries support the fact that this Province still has distributions of many unknown species because of the lack of systematic research and attention. When our team continued to study ground spiders from this Province, one undescribed and poorly-known species was found. The aims of the present paper are to provide detailed descriptions of this new species, based on specimens.

Materials and methods
Specimens were examined using a SZ6100 stereomicroscope. Both male and female copulatory organs were dissected and examined in 80% ethanol using an Olympus CX43 compound microscope with a KUY NICE CCD camera. Epigynes were cleared with pancreatin solution (Álvarez-Padilla and Hormiga 2007). Specimens, including dissected male palps and epigynes, were preserved in 75% ethanol after examination. Types are deposited in the Animal Specimen Museum, College of Life Science, Jinggangshan University (ASM-JGSU).
The measurements were taken using a stereomicroscope (AxioVision SE64 Rel. 4.8.3) and are given in millimetres. The body lengths of all specimens exclude the chelicerae and spinnerets. Terminology of the male and female genitalia follows Dankittipakul et al. (2012).
Colouration as in Fig. 2A, B. Abdomen paler than that of the male. Epigyne ( Fig. 3E−H). Epigynal plate (EP) broad V-shaped, median incision deep, almost reaching posterior margin. Lateral border (LB) along the lateral margin of epigynal plate heart-shaped. Insemination ducts (ID) pedicel-like, separated by their length, slightly parallel. Spermathecae (Spe) oval in dorsal view, ear-shaped in lateral view. Fertilisation ducts (FD) relative thin, as long as the width of insemination ducts.

Etymology
The species name is derived from the name of the type locality; noun in apposition.

Distribution
Known from Ji'an and Ganzhou cities in Jiangxi Province, China (Fig. 5). It seems that this species has a wide distribution in this Province based on recent fieldwork. Records of Mallinella shahu sp. n., from Jiangxi Province, China.

Ecology
It was collected from leaf litter in areas of broad-leaved forests in hilly areas.

Discussion
The genus Mallinella is divided into 22 species-groups by Dankittipakul et al. (2012), based on morphological characters; 202 species later, it becomes the most species-rich group in the family Zodariidae. According their localities, they are mainly distributed in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Indo-Burma, Sundaland, Wallacea and Polynesia-Micronesia (Dankittipakul et al. 2012). Only 26 species (including the new species) have been reported from China (WSC 2023). The main reasons are that this group has not received much attention in China and that many Mallinella species are difficult to distinguish from their closely-related species, especially the females.