An update on the spider genus Hexophthalma (Araneae: Sicariidae) in the Afrotropical region, with descriptions of new species

  • Leon Lotz Department of Arachnology, National Museum, P.O. Box 266, Bloemfontein, 9300
Keywords: Africa, six-eyed crab spiders, Haplogynae

Abstract

The described Afrotropical species of the genus Hexophthalma Karsch, 1879 (under the genus name Sicarius Walckenaer, 1847), of the spider family Sicariidae Keyserling, 1880, were recently reviewed. In the present paper the Afrotropical species of the genus Hexophthalma are revisited. After a thorough examination of all the available specimens from nine major collections, the species H. testacea (Purcell, 1908) is here synonymized with H. hahni (Karsch, 1878), three new species are described – H. binfordae sp. nov., H. goanikontesensis sp. nov. (both from Namibia) and H. leroyi sp. nov. (from South Africa) – and the male of H. dolichocephala (Lawrence, 1928) is described for the first time. The distribution of the species is also revised and a new updated key to the species is compiled.

References

Karsch F. 1878. Exotisch-araneologisches. Zeitschrift für die gesammten Naturwissenschaften 51: 323–333.

Karsch F. 1879. Sieben neue Arachniden von St Martha. Entomologische Zeitung herausgegeben von dem Entomologische Vereine zu Stettin 40: 106–109. Available from https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9188954 [accessed 23 Mar. 2018].

Lawrence R.F. 1928. Contributions to a knowledge of the fauna of South-West Africa VII. Arachnida (Part 2). Annals of the South African Museum 25: 217–312. Available from https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40656433 [accessed 23 Mar. 2018].

Lawrence R.F. 1938. Transvaal Museum Expedition to South-West Africa and Little Namaqualand, May to August 1937. Spiders. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 19: 215–226.

Lotz L.N. 2012. Present status of Sicariidae (Arachnida: Araneae) in the Afrotropical region. Zootaxa 3522: 1–41.

Magalhaes I.L.F., Brescovit A.D. & Santos A.J. 2017. Phylogeny of Sicariidae spiders (Araneae: Haplogynae), with a monograph on Neotropical Sicarius. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 179 (4): 767–864.

Müller G.J., Wium C.A., Marks C.J., Du Plessis C.E. & Veale D.J.H. 2012. Spider bite in South Africa: diagnosis and management. Continuing Medical Education 30: 382–392. Available from http://www.cmej.org.za/index.php/cmej/article/view/2547/2582 [accessed 23 Mar. 2018].

Newlands G. 1986. Necrotic Arachnidism in Southern Africa. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Newlands G. & Atkinson P. 1988. Review of southern African spiders of medical importance, with notes on the signs and symptoms of envenomation. South African Medical Journal 73: 235–239.

Pocock R.I. 1900. Some new Arachnida from Cape Colony. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 7 6 (31): 316–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222930008678382

Purcell W.F. 1908. Araneae (1). In: Schultze L. Forschungsreise im westlichen und zentralen Südafrika ausgeführt in den Jahren 1903–1905. Denkschrift der medicinisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, Jena 13: 203–246. Available from https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37102545 [accessed 23 Mar. 2018].

Simon E. 1893. Famille Filistatidae. Histoire naturelle des Araignées 1: 255–488. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/38670557

Van Aswegen G., Van Rooyen J.M., Van der Nest D.G., Veldman F.J., De Villiers T.H. & Oberholzer G. 1997. Venom of a six-eyed crab spider, Sicarius testaceus (Purcell, 1908), causes necrotic and haemorrhagic lesions in the rabbit. Toxicon 35: 1149–1152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0041-0101(96)00203-6

World Spider Catalog 2017. World Spider Catalog. Version 18.0. Natural History Museum Bern. Available from https://wsc.nmbe.ch/ [accessed on 3 April 2017].

Zobel-Thropp P.A., Bodner M.R. & Binford G.J. 2010. Comparative analyses of venoms from American and African Sicarius spiders that differ in sphingomyelinase D activity. Toxicon 55: 1274–1282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2010.01.019

Published
2018-04-10
How to Cite
Lotz, L. (2018). An update on the spider genus Hexophthalma (Araneae: Sicariidae) in the Afrotropical region, with descriptions of new species. European Journal of Taxonomy, (424). https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2018.424