Species of Wadicosa ( Araneae , Lycosidae ) : transfer of two species from Pardosa and description of three new species from Africa

Pardosa benadira Caporiacco, 1940 is redescribed, including the hitherto unknown female. The species is here transferred to the genus Wadicosa Zyuzin, 1985. Previously known only from its type locality in Somalia, additional localities for P. benadira in Somalia and Kenya are given. Male and female W. cognata sp. nov. (Kenya: Lake Magadi), male and female W. jocquei sp. nov. (Comoro Islands, Aldabra, Madagascar and Mauritius) and female W. russellsmithi sp. nov. (Mauritius) are described. Pardosa oncka Lawrence, 1927, widely distributed in Africa and redescribed by Kronestedt in 1987, is formally transferred to the genus Wadicosa and new records given.


Introduction
The genus Wadicosa was established by Zyuzin (1985) for some lycosid species previously placed in Pardosa, with Lycosa venatrix Lucas, 1846 as the type species.It was later shown (Wunderlich 1987) that Lycosa venatrix Lucas is not conspecific with Lycosa (or Pardosa) venatrix sensu auctores, which was the species Zyuzin (op. cit.) referred to when establishing the genus.The latter was instead identified with Lycosa fidelis Pickard-Cambridge, 1872, which was consequently formalized as the type species of Wadicosa (Kronestedt & Zyuzin 2009).
The original description and illustration of Pardosa benadira, as well as the redescription and illustrations in Roewer (1959), are poor (cf.Fig. 2A-B) and a new description is provided here in order to make the species identifiable.The female here assigned to this species has previously not been described.The matching of the sexes was due to the collecting of both in two widely separated localities.
Wadicosa cognata sp.nov. is described based on material received from Dr Scott Miller and collected by him and collaborators at Lake Magadi, Kenya.Years ago, the author came across material now described as W. jocquei sp.nov.from the Comoro Islands, collected by Dr R. Jocqué during visits to these islands in 1981, 1983 and 1993, and from Aldabra.Additional material of this species revealed its occurrence on Madagascar and Mauritius.No Lycosidae species have previously been reported from Aldabra or Mauritius.
The material from Mauritius, collected by Dr A. Russell-Smith, also included a single female of an unknown species here described as Wadicosa russellsmithi sp.nov.

Material and methods
The material studied is preserved in the following collections: Micrographs were made using a Hitachi S-4300 scanning electron microscope at the NHRS.Digital colour photographs (stacked) of specimens in ethanol were taken with a Canon EOS 5D camera with Zerene Stacker (Fig. 1), and by using an Olympus SZX12 stereo microscope with a DeltaPix Infinity X camera and DeltaPix Insight software (for stacking) (Fig. 7) at the same museum.
Measurements refer to specified individuals and are given in mm except for eyes.Eyepiece micrometer units (given for eyes) can be converted to mm by dividing by 80.
The following abbreviations are used in the descriptions of taxa:

Diagnosis
The male differs from other Wadicosa species by a short, characteristically shaped embolus with a proximal conical protrusion (Fig. 2C-D); the female differs by the shape of the epigyne, having a characteristically shaped median depression which is longer than wide and flanked by two narrow elongate furrows (Figs 3D,7A).
Three yellowish spots at each side of lanceolate stripe, one at anterior half, one at middle and one at rear end.Posterior to lanceolate stripe a series of 3-4 yellowish transverse bars.Venter light yellowish to greyish with adpressed whitish pubescence and more erect scattered light hairs (difficult to see).Spinnerets yellowish.
legs (Table I).Yellowish brown with more or less distinct dark annulation on Ti and Mt.Fe I mostly darkened, prolaterally with prominent yellowish spot.(Fe may also be more or less darkened with lighter markings obscured: probably more aged specimens.)Ta yellow.Ti I with two retrolateral spines.4A).Anterior retrolateral process comparatively short (Fig. 4D).Conductor long, narrow, distally bent about 90º (Fig. 5C-D).Embolus comparatively short, stout, proximally with conspicuous conical protrusion directed backwards, tip with wide concavity (Figs 2C-D, 5C-D).
Cephalothorax and abdomen.Carapace greyish brown (slightly lighter than in male).Median field wide, yellowish brown (sometimes weakly discernible), with jagged edges.Lateral bands (when discernible) present as yellowish brown spots, posterior one elongated.Thoracic part richly furnished with short dark hairs; median field and lateral spots in addition with numerous adpressed light hairs.Chelicerae with dark and light hairs of varying length.Colour, pattern and hairiness of abdomen similar to those of male.
eyes.Width of row I 58 (slightly procurved as seen from front), row II 71, row III 89, row II-III 70.Diameter of AME 14,ALE 10,PME 27,PLE 23. Distance between AME 8,between AME and ALE 2. legs (Table 1).Yellowish brown with darker annulation.Fe I mostly dark with distinct yellowish brown spot prolaterally in distal half.Fe II-IV dark except for "pseudoannulation", i.e., lighter dorso-lateral spots (distally) and dorso-lateral groups of whitish hairs.epigyne (Figs 3D, 7A, 8A, D).Median depression longer than wide.Bottom of depression with longitudinal median ridge.Elongated deeper pit at each side of median depression.Lateral elevations with more or less sclerotized rims, protruding like two lips slightly converging rearwards.Anterior part of median depression with two well separated deep foveolae.Receptacula pear-shaped, directed forwards (Fig. 8D).

Habitat
Collected in habitats close to water.

Diagnosis
The male is characterized by an embolus bent over the upper branch of the tegular apophysis (Fig. 3B), similar to that in W. fidelis but differing from the latter by the apicalmost part of the embolus being considerably narrower (cf.Fig. 5A-B).The female has an epigyne with a configuration resembling that in W. fidelis, but differing from the latter by its proportions (cf.Fig. 3E-F).

Etymology
The specific epithet means 'having affinity with', referring to the similarity of this species with W. fidelis.
Cephalothorax.Carapace greyish brown.Median field in thoracic part sometimes lighter to yellowish grey, wide around fovea, edges of light field jagged but indistinct.Lateral bands absent or present as separate, indistinct, slightly lighter spots.An elongate lighter spot may be visible on each side at level of coxae III-IV; this spot as well as adjacent part of carapace margin densely furnished with whitish hairs.Thoracic part furnished with short dark hairs and recumbent light hairs, latter numerous in median field (though often worn off).Clypeus dark greyish brown with dark hairs.Chelicerae greyish brown with dark hairs.Sternum greyish yellow with erect dark hairs.
abdomen.Dorsally dark brownish grey with indistinct, somewhat lighter brownish grey lanceolate stripe.Dorsum covered with numerous long erect dark hairs, short dark hairs, and recumbent light hairs.No distinct pattern.Venter greyish yellow to light greyish with dense light pubescence and scattered erect dark hairs.Spinnerets greyish yellow.legs (Table 1).Greyish yellow with moderately darker annulation throughout.
Cephalothorax and abdomen.As in male though median field of carapace hardly discernible.Abdomen patterned, when visible, similar to W. benadira (vide supra).legs (Table 1).As in male.

Habitat
The type locality is a hypersaline (sodium carbonate) lake.

Distribution
Only known from Kenya.Most probably occurring also in the Tanzanian part of the Magadi-Natron Basin.

Diagnosis
The male palp is characterized by having a small terminal part carrying a non-pigmented pointed conductor and a stout and smoothly tapering embolus, slightly curved, running transversally over most of the bulbus.The female differs from other Wadicosa species by having an epigyne with deep median cavity wider than long, its posterior rim somewhat protruding.

Etymology
The specific epithet is a patronym in honour of Dr Rudy Jocqué, an authority on African spiders who first enabled me to study material of this species.
Cephalothorax.Carapace dark brownish with indistinct, wide, yellow-brown median band and broken lateral bands (sometimes faint).

Remarks
The male from Aldabra differs by the proportions of the cymbium, the apical part being relatively short, although the configuration of the bulbus corresponds to that of the other males.Several specimens from Foulpointe have an overall darker colour than the rest of the material studied.
A male from Ethiopia (Gamo Gofa, 49 km SE of Sodo, 19 Aug. 1997, W.J. Pulawski, CAS-ENT 9046030), of a presumably undescribed species, has a bulbus morphologically resembling that in W. jocquei sp.nov.but differs inter alia in the shape of the embolus (shorter and broader).

Habitat
The species seems to prefer sites close to water.

Remarks
Pardosa oncka Lawrence, 1927 is here formally placed in Wadicosa.This species, with a wide distribution in Africa south of the Sahara, was redescribed in detail by Kronestedt (1987), who emphasized the presence of characters diagnostic for the genus Wadicosa.The combination Wadicosa oncka was used in Dippenaar-Schoeman & Jocqué (1997) and subsequently, e.g., in Oyediran et al. (2000).This combination has not been formally accepted in the World Spider Catalog (2015).

Diagnosis
The female is distinguished from other Wadicosa species by the epigyne having a median cavity, divided in front by a septum.

Etymology
This species is named for the British arachnologist Dr Anthony Russell-Smith, collector of the specimen, who also in different ways has contributed to an increased knowledge of the Afrotropical spider fauna.abdomen.Dorsally whitish brown with greyish lanceolate stripe (for shape see Fig. 1D).Anteriorly at each side of lanceolate stripe a dark greyish spot.Sides with light greyish streaks.(Posteriormost part of abdomen missing in holotype.)Venter whitish with adpressed white pubescence and scattered short greyish hairs.legs (Table 1).Yellowish with darker greyish longitudinal marks pro-and retrolaterally on all femora.Ti I with distal retrolateral spine.epigyne (Figs 3H, 7D).Foveolae separate, situated at some distance in front of cavity, the latter wider than long, divided in front by median septum.

Remarks
This species is placed in Wadicosa due to the presence of two foveolae in the epigyne.The placement is made with hesitation as no male has yet been found.It is hoped that this description will stimulate the search for more material of this species on Mauritius.The single specimen has a notably pale appearance.

Distribution
Mauritius.

Discussion
The generic placement of the five species treated above in the genus Wadicosa is tentative.Until more species of this genus are sufficiently described, the concept of the genus is taken in a broad sense, equivalent to the subfamily Wadicosinae.When introducing this subfamily, Zyuzin (1985) did not give any diagnosis for it per se, just a description of the new genus Wadicosa (emended diagnosis in Fig. 9. Collection localities for Wadicosa benadira (Caporiacco) (stars), W. cognata sp.nov.(triangle) and W. jocquei sp.nov.(circles).One symbol may refer to more than one locality.Pardosa and, accordingly, the subfamilial level has been put in question (Yan & Yan 2007).
It is evident that this genus will be split on morphological grounds in the future.Among the species treated here, W. jocquei sp.nov., W. oncka and W. russellsmithi sp.nov.stand out as strongly different from the type species, W. fidelis, in a number of characteristics (e.g., overall configuration of bulbus, shape of embolus and tegular apophysis, configuration of epigyne).
On the other hand, W. cognata sp.nov.shows comparatively small morphological differences from W. fidelis, with which it shares the configuration of the bulbus, inter alia the shape of the tegular apophysis, the conductor and the embolus, as well as the presence of a posterior retrolateral process and a scutra, and the configuration of the epigyne (cf.Kronestedt & Zyuzin 2009).Also, both spinulae and verrucose outgrows (function unknown) on the tegular apophysis, first described in Kronestedt & Zyuzin (2009), are present in both species.These two species constitute a group, the Wadicosa fidelis group, to which also some Asian species can be assigned on morphological grounds (e.g., configuration of embolus), including W. commoventa, W. daliensis (Yin et al. 1997), W. okinawensis and Wadicosa sp. from Borneo (Zehethofer 1998).