Published February 12, 2016 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Neostasina maroon Rheims & Alayón 2016, sp. nov.

Description

Neostasina maroon sp. nov.

Figs 113−119, Map 5

Type material: Holotype: ♂, Jamaica, Portland Parish, Blue Mountains, main range 1500–2130 m [18°08’N, 76°40’W], 17−19 August 1934, Darlington leg. (MCZ 69576).

Paratypes: JAMAICA: Portland Parish: 1♂, 1 juvenile, same vial as holotype (MCZ 69576); 1♂, Blue Mountains, Whitefield Hall (18°02’N, 76°37’W), 14 November 2013, Team CarBio leg. (NMNH); 1♀, Oatley Mountain (18°05’N, 76°43’W), 17 November 2013, Team CarBio leg. (NMNH).

Etymology. The specific name is a noun taken from the American Spanish word “cimarrón”, meaning "feral animal, fugitive, runaway". It refers to the enslaved people, known as Maroons, who escaped to the Blue Mountains to live independently, when Jamaica's economy was dominated by plantation slavery.

Diagnosis. Males of N. maroon sp. nov. resemble those of N. bryantae sp. nov. and N. gunboat sp. nov. (Figs 42, 70) in the vRTA bifid (Fig. 115). They are distinguished from both species by the TBE bifid (single in the other species) and by the embolus with one long dorsal subdistal keel (Fig. 116) (absent in the other species). Females resemble those of N. mammee sp. nov. (Fig. 110) in the median septum pentagonal with posterior margin rounded and strongly procurved (Fig. 117). They are distinguished from this species by the anterior rim strongly recurved and anterior margin of median septum procurved (Fig. 117).

Description. Male (MCZ 69576, paratype): Prosoma brown, darker at eye area, with thin dark brown lines along thoracic striae, margins of cephalic region and extending posteriorly from PME. Fovea dark brown. Eye borders black. Chelicerae brown with longitudinal dark brown stripe. Legs and pedipalps brown. Leg femora ventrally mottled with brown spots. Tibiae and tarsi with scattered brown irregular marks. Sternum yellow with orange margins. Endites pale yellow. Labium orange, distally pale yellow. Opisthosoma cream colored; dorsally with dense pattern of gray marks; ventrally mottled with gray spots. Total length 9.1. Prosoma: 4.2 long, 3.6 wide. Opisthosoma: 4.7 long, 3.2 wide. Eyes: diameters: 0.22, 0.20, 0.14, 0.20; interdistances: 0.26, 0.10, 0.36, 0.30, 0.22, 0.10. Legs (2143): I: 15.2 (4.1, 2.1, 4.1, 3.8, 1.1); II: 16.8 (4.3, 2.2, 4.2, 4.0, 1.1); III: 12.3 (3.8, 1.7, 2.9, 3.0, 0.9); IV: 14.8 (4.3, 1.6, 3.4, 4.3, 1.2). Palp: VTA triangular, displaced retrolaterally; dRTA massive and slightly bent in retrolateral view; vRTA with one branch laminar and distally wide and the other smaller, with rounded tip in ventral view; eRTA rounded; tegular protrusion arising from tegulum at 7 o’clock position; median apophysis arising from tegulum at four o’clock position; conductor slightly widened distally; TBC short, slightly longer than wide; embolus arising from tegulum at 9 o’clock position; TBE with one conical, straight branch and one slightly curved (Figs 113−116).

Female (NMNH, paratype): Coloration pattern as in male. Total length 10.1. Prosoma: 5.0 long, 4.4 wide. Opisthosoma: 5.1 long, 3.2 wide. Eyes: diameters: 0.31, 0.25, 0.19, 0.25; interdistances: 0.30, 0.22, 0.50, 0.50, 0.23, 0.20. Legs (21/43): I: 16.1 (4.5, 2.5, 4.2, 3.9, 1.0); II: 16.6 (5.0, 2.5, 4.2, 3.9, 1.0); III: 13.7 (4.3, 2.2, 3.2, 3.2, 0.8); IV: 16.1 (4.7, 2.0, 3.8, 4.5, 1.1). Epigyne: epigynal field roughly squared, slightly longer than wide; median septum wider than long (Fig. 117). Vulva: glandular projections elongate, two times longer than wide; spermathecae packed within a sclerotized structure with one large, rounded part opening from copulatory ducts and one short cylindrical part opening into fertilization ducts; internal ducts inverted U-shaped (Figs 118−119).

Variation. Males (n = 3): total length 7.4−9.1; prosoma length 3.7−4.2; femur I length 3.8−4.1.

Distribution. Only known from the Blue Mountains National Park in Jamaica (Map 5).

Notes

Published as part of Rheims, Cristina Anne & Alayón, Giraldo, 2016, Neostasina gen. nov., a new genus of huntsman spiders from the Neotropical region (Araneae, Sparassidae, Sparianthinae), pp. 301-344 in Zootaxa 4079 (3) on pages 332-334, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4079.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1050744

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Collection code
MCZ , MCZ, NMNH
Event date
1934-08-17 , 2013-11-14
Family
Sparassidae
Genus
Neostasina
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Araneae
Phylum
Arthropoda
Scientific name authorship
Rheims & Alayón
Species
maroon
Taxonomic status
sp. nov.
Taxon rank
species
Type status
holotype , paratype
Verbatim event date
1934-08-17/19 , 2013-11-14/17
Taxonomic concept label
Neostasina maroon Rheims & Alayón, 2016