The new spider genus Palindroma, featuring a novel synapomorphy for the Zodariidae (Araneae)

  • Rudy Jocqué Royal Museum for Central Africa, B-3080 Tervuren
  • Arnaud Henrard Earth and life Institute, Biodiversity research Center, UCL-17.07.04, Bâtiment Carnoy, Croix du Sud, 5, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2015.152
Keywords: East Africa, Central Africa, Cryptothelinae, miombo, tibial process

Abstract

The new genus Palindroma gen. nov. is described in the Cryptothelinae, Zodariidae. Apart from the type species, P. morogorom gen. et sp. nov. (♂♀), the genus contains P. aleykyela gen. et sp. nov. (♂), P. avonova gen. et sp. nov. (♂♀), P. sinis gen. et sp. nov. (♂) and the somewhat aberrant species P. obmoimiombo gen. et sp. nov. (♂). The four typical representatives of the genus are characterized by the profile of the carapace with a slight dip, the absence of precoxal sclerites and the characters of the male palp with enlarged tibia, large subtegulum and tegular retrolateral knob. The genus occurs in miombo-woodland and coastal forest in East and Central Africa and this peculiar distribution is discussed. A key to the males of the Palindroma species is provided. Specimens of Palindroma have a particularly well-developed tibial process fitting in a shallow metatarsal pouch on all legs in both sexes. Although less conspicuous in some derived taxa, the feature appears to be present in all representatives of the Zodariidae, but not in possible sister-group taxa and is thus an autapomorphy of the family.

References

Henrard A. & Jocqué R. 2015. On the new Afrotropical genus Suffrica with discovery of an abdominal gland and a dual femoral organ (Araneae, Zodariidae). Zootaxa 3972: 1–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3972.1.1

Jocqué R. 1991. A generic revision of the spider family Zodariidae (Araneae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 201: 1–160.

Jocqué R. 2009. Some keep it short: on the radiation in the Afrotropical spider genera Capheris and Systenoplacis (Araneae, Zodariidae) without male pedipalp complexity increase. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology 5: 77–148.

Jocqué R.C.A.M. 2013. Cyrioctea (Araneae, Zodariidae) in Africa: temperate Gondwanaland relict, recent radiation, or both? European Journal of Taxonomy 47: 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2013.47

Jocqué R., Alderweireldt M. & Dippenaar-Schoeman A. 2013. Biodiversity, an African perspective. In: Penney D. (ed.) Spider Research in the 21st century: 18–57. Siri Scientific Press, Rochdale.

Jocqué R. & Dippenaar-Schoeman A.S. 2007. Spider Families of the World. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren.

Ramirez M.J. 2014. The morphology and phylogeny of dionychan spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 390: 1–374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1206/821.1

Ramirez M.J., Grismado C.J., Labarque F.M., Izquierdo M.A., Ledford J.M., Miller J.A. Haddad C.R. & Griswold C.E. 2014. The morphology and relationships of the walking mud spiders of the genus Cryptothele (Araneae: Zodariidae). Zoologischer Anzeiger 253: 382–393. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2014.03.002

Russell-Smith A. & Jocqué R. 2015. New Zodariidae (Araneae) from Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania. African Invertebrates 56: 455–476.

Published
2015-11-13
How to Cite
Jocqué, R., & Henrard, A. (2015). The new spider genus Palindroma, featuring a novel synapomorphy for the Zodariidae (Araneae). European Journal of Taxonomy, (152). https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2015.152
Issue
No. 152 (2015): The new spider genus Palindroma, featuring a novel synapomorphy for the Zodariidae (Araneae)
Section
Zoology
Copyright (c) 2015 Rudy Jocqué, Arnaud Henrard

Creative Commons Copyright Notices

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are NOT PERMITTED to post their submitted work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) prior to publication, as it may lead to nomenclatural issues.