Capobula ukhahlamba Haddad & Jin & Platnick & Booysen 2021, spec. nov.

Capobula ukhahlamba spec. nov.

Figs 10, 73, 74

Type material: Holotype ♀: SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal: Champagne Castle, Hlathikulu Forest, 29°02.366’S, 29°23.421’E, 1560 m a.s.l., 20.I.2011, leg. C. Haddad (base of grass tussocks, grassland-forest ecotone) (NCA 2018 /35). Paratypes: SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal: Cathedral Peak Forest Station, 75 km WSW Estcourt, 1380 m a.s.l., 14.XII.1979, leg. S. & J. Peck (Leucosidea boulder bush scrub, night sweeping), 1♀ (AMNH); Didima National Park, Cathedral Peak area, Rainbow Gorge, 33.5 km WSW of Winterton, 28°57.600’S, 29°13.635’E, 1518 m a.s.l., 19.I.2011, leg. H. Wood & C. Griswold (sifting leaf litter, Afromontane forest), 1♀ (CAS, CASENT 9043022, SA11-041); Same locality, 28°56.982’S, 29°13.874’E, 1400 m a.s.l., 19.I.2011, leg. C. Haddad (base of grasses and ferns), 1♀ (MHBU); Royal Natal National Park, 38.6 km W of Bergville, 28°41.137’S, 28°57.425’E, 1403 m a.s.l., 21.I.2011, leg. H. Wood, C. Haddad & C. Griswold (general collecting in ferns and grass tussocks), 1♀ (CAS, CASENT 9043423, SA11-046); Sani Pass, IX.2006, leg. D. Prentice (pitfall traps), 1♀ (NCA 2008 /1982); Sani Pass elevational project, Ixopo, 30°11.010’S, 30°09.130’E, 900 m a.s.l., 1.I.2009, leg. Univ. of Pretoria students (pitfall traps, site 8a), 1♀ (NCA 2011 /774).

Diagnosis. Females can be easily distinguished by the large circular ridges surrounding the copulatory openings (Fig. 73), the oval rather than teardrop-shaped primary spermathecae (Fig. 74), and the presence of a cream Y-shaped marking on the abdominal dorsum (Fig. 10), which is absent in the other species (Figs 3–9). Male unknown.

Remarks. Although the male of this species is unknown and the female has an inverted Y-shaped cream marking that it absent in congeners, we place this species in Capobula and not Orthobula because of the absence of pits along the dorsal midline of the carapace and the anterolaterally-positioned spermathecae; name in apposition.

Etymology. Taken from the name of the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Park, a conservation initiative between South Africa and Lesotho, which includes the distribution range of this species. Ukhahlamba is the isiZulu word meaning “barrier of spears”; noun in apposition.

Female (holotype, NCA 2018/35). Measurements: CL 0.89, CW 0.67, AL 1.06, AW 0.89, TL 2.15 (2.03–2.15), PERW 0.39, MOQAW 0.12, MOQPW 0.16, MOQL 0.15. Length of leg segments: I 0.54 + 0.22 + 0.48 + 0.41 + 0.27 = 1.92; II 0.48 + 0.22 + 0.37 + 0.37 + 0.25 = 1.69; III 0.41 + 0.19 + 0.33 + 0.33 + 0.24 = 1.50; IV 0.57 + 0.24 + 0.48 + 0.54 + 0.30 = 2.13.

Colour: carapace orange-brown, pits and lateral margins brown; chelicerae yellow-brown; endites and labium yellow-brown proximally, distal third cream; sternum yellow, pit margins and lateral margins yellow-brown; palps and legs creamy-yellow; abdomen dark grey dorsally and laterally, dorsally with diverging cream Y-shaped marking in anterior half, narrow cream chevrons in posterior half; venter cream, with faint grey mottling; spinnerets cream.

Leg spination: femora and patellae: spineless; tibiae: I plv 6 rlv 5, II plv 5 rlv 4; metatarsi: I plv 4 rlv 4, II plv 4 rlv 4; tarsi: I plv 3 rlv 3, II plv 3 rlv 2.

Epigyne with tiny copulatory openings in round epigynal ridges (Fig. 73); copulatory ducts initially curving medially, looping posteriorly, then laterally, before entering anterolateral primary spermathecae along mesal margin; bursae small and spherical (Fig. 74).

Habitat and biology. Distributed in montane grasslands at elevations between 900–1600 m a.s.l.

Distribution. Only known from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with most records from the Drakensberg Mountains (Fig. 75).