Thyene coccineovittata

Thyene coccineovittata (Simon 1886)

Hyllus coccineovittatus Simon 1886 ♂ ♀

Thyene crudelis Peckham & Peckham 1903 ♂, synonomy by Berland & Millot 1941

Thyene pulchra Peckham & Peckham 1903 ♀, new synonymy: Wesołowska & Haddad 2009 ♀: Hill & Mariante 2019 ♀

Thyene coccineovittata Berland & Millot 1941 ♂ ♀ (but not ♀ T. ogdeni): Wesołowska & Haddad 2009 ♂ (only): Dawidowicz & Wesołowska 2016 ♂: Oger & Van Keer 2017 ♂: Hill & Mariante 2019 ♂ (T. crudelis)

Thyene cf. pulchra Mariante & Hill 2018 ♀

Diagnosis. Each pedipalp of the male Thyene coccineovittata has a very short retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA), often difficult to observe behind the many coils of the embolus. The epigynum of the female is very lightly sclerotized, generally with only a small anteromedial parens visible through the cuticle. The male is dark brown to black, the female light yellow-brown and translucent. Both sexes have a middorsal opisthosomal band comprised of broad, flat white-yellow scales, and many of these scales are present on the carapace and/or the chelicerae. On either side this band is flanked by dark stripes, interrupted with paired spots toward the rear, and highlighted with bright, scarlet scales. The species group name (bearing scarlet stripes) is almost certainly based on the appearance of these flanking stripes, but their coloration varies and in some males they are black without any scarlet scales. In females the flanking stripes are usually broken into large, black spots. Other characters, such as the femoral stripes of females, are shared with other species of Thyene and are thus of limited use for purposes of identification. Here (Figures 3- 22) we present photographs of male, female and immature T. coccineovittata with reference to the sites (Figure 2) where they have been observed in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Habitat (Figure 23). Our two study sites (Figure 2: sites 1-2) are both in Rio de Janeiro, although other observers have found Thyene coccineovittata near Cabo Frio on the eastern side of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Figure 22). At both of these sites T. coccineovittata was found on vegetation in inhabited areas. One of the authors (RMM, 9 OCT 2018; Mariante & Hill 2018) first found this species standing on a leaf of Triplaris sp. (Polygonaceae, Ant Tree), a common native tree in Brazil, at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (site 2), a campus of Fiocruz, a scientific institution for research and development in the biological sciences. This campus has many native trees separated by the stairs, sidewalks and paths that give access to the buildings. Many Neotropical salticids (e.g., Bryantella, Chira, Colonus, Corythalia, Frigga, Lyssomanes, Maeota, Phiale, Sarinda, Sumampattus and Metaphidippus) have previously been found at the same location. We do not presently consider this species to be a synanthrope in this area as it has not been found living on man-made structures, but its survival in Brazil may nonetheless be dependent on cultivated plants in a semi-urban environment. We do not know if this spider has invaded unaltered natural habitats in Brazil, but the finding of this species in a semi-natural habitat in the state of Rio de Janeiro should not be ignored, since some introduced spiders can become invasive and displace native species. Although the best-known introduced spiders are synanthropic and cosmopolitan (Cutler 1990; Taucare-Ríos & Edwards 2012; Taucare-Ríos 2013), some recent salticid introductions that are neither synanthropic nor cosmopolitain have also been very successful (Kaldari et al. 2011; Gall & Edwards 2016).