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

ion is made of P. obmoimiombo, which may belong to another genus as explained above. The vast miombo biome, 3.6 million km2 (against 2.3 million km2 for rainforest), is spread across eleven Fig. 20. A. Trygetus sexoculatus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872), ♂, left tibia-metatarsus joint III. B. As previous, left tibia-metatarsus joint II; arrows indicate tibial process and metatarsal concavity. C. Parazodarion raddei (Simon, 1889), ♂, right tibia-metatarsus joint III; arrow indicates tibial process. D. As previous, right tibia-metatarsus joint II; arrows indicate tibial process and metatarsal concavity. E. Diores poweri Tucker, 1920, ♀, right tibia-metatarsus joint IV; arrow indicates tibial process. F. Idem, detail; arrow indicates metatarsal concavity. Scale bars: A–B, E–F = 10 mm, C–D = 20 mm. European Journal of Taxonomy 152: 1–33 (2015)


Introduction
Probably the most confusing area in the systematics of the Zodariidae is the subfamily cryptothelinae, which has been mentioned under the name cydrelinae until the genus Cryptothele L. Koch, 1872 was eventually incorporated into it (Jocqué & dippenaar-Schoeman 2007;Ramirez et al. 2014).Many species had been misplaced, mainly due to the poor definition of the genera before the revision of Jocqué (1991).As a consequence, several new genera were created to accommodate the many species that had either been misplaced or that remained to be described.The cryptothelinae has its main distribution in southern Africa and appears to be far from completely inventoried.Some large genera (Cydrela Thorell, 1870;Psammorygma Jocqué, 1991) remain to be revised and many species have not yet been described, partly because they do not fit in one of the current genera.In the present article a new genus is created to accommodate five new species.
The family Zodariidae can be considered as well defined.However, it remains one of the most diversified spider families: it not only has a huge size range (see Jocqué et al. 2013;Russell-Smith & Jocqué 2015) but the variation of the habitus and of morphological characters is so vast that a superficial scan of a specimen does not always easily reveal its generic or even (sub-)familial identity.Mainly for the taxa at the base of the clade (see Jocqué 1991), there may be some doubt about their inclusion in the family.Some of them (e.g., Cyrioctea Simon, 1889) lack the typical lateral claw teeth and are incorporated in the Zodariidae solely on the base of the absence of the serrula on the endites.The new synapomorphy, a prolateral tibial process on all legs in both sexes discovered during the description of the new genus, is therefore most welcome since it corroborates the inclusion of basal taxa.

Material and methods
Specimens were observed, drawn and measured with a WILd M10 stereo microscope.details of the female genitalia and male palps were observed with a Zeiss Stemi 2000 stereo microscope.Measurements and photographs of the habitus, details of mouthparts, detached male palps and female genitalia were taken with a Leica MZ16 using the LAS automontage software (ver. 3.8).The female genitalia were dissected and digested with pancreatin, and then immersed in 75% ethanol.
For SEM photos, specimens were dried in hexamethyldisilazane (36 h), gold coated and examined and photographed with a JeoL 6480 LV scanning electron microscope.Types are deposited in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (MRAC) and the Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen (ZMUC).
All measurements are in mm.All palp illustrations are from right palps.Leg spination formulas follow Jocqué (2013).

Diagnosis
Representatives of Palindroma gen.nov.are typical sturdy cryptothelinae with ALe in front of AMe and slightly recurved to straight posterior eye row; sternum shield shaped with straight anterior margin and without precoxal sclerites; posterior legs with numerous short spines in combination with longer ventral spines; teguments of carapace, legs and abdomen often provided with patches of white or silvery setae.Male palp with large patella, large subtegulum and tegulum provided with retrolateral knob; median apophysis absent.
Palindroma gen.nov. is easily separated from Capheris Simon, 1893 and Systenoplacis Simon, 1907 by the absence of anterior concavities of the sternum.It deviates from Caesetius Simon, 1893, Psammorygma and Rotundrela Jocqué, 1999 by the absence of precoxal sclerites, from Aschema Jocqué, 1991 by the unmodified posterior legs and from Psammoduon Jocqué, 1991 by the absence of fans of supple spines on the legs; in Cydrela the sternum is slightly indented in front, the cephalic area in the carapace profile much higher and the posterior eye row more strongly recurved.

Etymology
The genus name is derived from the English term 'palindrome' originating from the Greek 'παλινδρομος', that refers to words or sentences that are identical whether they are read from front to back or the other way round.All species names of the new species described here are palindromes.The gender of the species name is feminine.

Description
Medium size spiders (7.5-10 mm) with reticulated to roughly granulate teguments.Carapace longer than wide (L/W < 1.43-1.71),slightly protruding anteriorly, with silvery hairs in male, almost hairless in females apart from a few longer hairs on clypeus; widest at level of coxae II-III, narrowed to about 0.48-0.62times maximum width in males and 0.62-0.71times maximum width in females (cephalic width measured on posterior tangent of PME).Cervical grooves poorly indicated.Profile flat or domed, highest at level of first coxae and with slight dip at level of fovea.colour: carapace medium to dark brown; chelicerae, legs, mouthparts and sternum medium to orange brown; abdomen dorsum grey with one to seven pale spots and four reddish apodemes, sides and venter white to pale grey; in males sclerotized in front of epigastric fold.eyes in three rows: ALe in front of AMe and further apart, posterior row straight or slightly recurved and eyes far apart.All eyes subequal, AMe dark, other eyes pale.clypeus straight, slightly slanting back, height 2.5 to 4 times diameter of ALe, sometimes with some long dispersed setae.JOCQUÉ R. & HENRARD A., Palindroma gen.nov., with novel zodariid synapomorphy Chilum double, about or slightly more than twice as wide as high, lateral margin poorly defined; without setae.chelicerae slightly conical, inner margin almost straight, with many evenly dispersed setae; with distomesal membranous lamina (Fig. 1A-B); fangs shorter than wide at base.Labium inverted Ushaped, with slightly narrowed base.endites roughly triangular, converging, with basolateral extension accommodating palpal coxae.Sternum shield-shaped, as wide as long, without triangular extensions or precoxal sclerites; anterior margin straight, lateral margins slightly sinuous.
Legs: robust.Formula 4123 or 4132.Spination reduced on legs I and II, well developed on III and IV.Most spines short and thick except dorsal ones on F and ventral ones on T and Mt.Patella III and IV with retrolateral boss at base of short spine.Anterior tarsi fusiform in male, usually longer than metatarsi, unmodified in female.One dorsal hinged hair on tibiae and metatarsi I and II (Fig. 1D).Trochanters with anterior concavity.Prolateral tibial process strongly developed on all legs in both sexes (see Fig. 17A-E).Three tarsal caws, paired ones with numerous teeth (Fig. 1C).
Female palp with numerous prolateral spines and some retrolateral ones (Fig. 1E); palpal claw with some small teeth at base (Fig. 1F); turned inward over less than 45°; without distal patch of chemosensitive setae.
Abdomen oval, with ventral row of small sclerotized apodemes; tracheal spiracle fairly small, somewhat advanced and provided with small rectangular scutellum.Both exes with six spinnerets.ALS large, conical, biarticulate.PLS and PMS provided with 1 and 3 cylindrical gland spigots, respectively.colulus represented by haired field.

Note
The species Palindroma obmoimiombo gen.et sp.nov. is only tentatively and probably temporarily incorporated in the genus.It lacks several of the specific generic characters: the indented profile of the carapace, the membranous lamina of the chelicerae, the enlarged male palpal patella.on the other hand, it has a field with spinules on the flat mesal surface of the chelicerae.The latter character approaches conditions in Caesetius but that genus has a high domed carapace, precoxal sclerites and a much more strongly recurved posterior eye row.The species apparently belongs to an as yet undescribed genus but with only one species and in the absence of females we have refrained from creating a new genus for it.

Distribution
Palindroma is found in forest and miombo regions of central and eastern Africa in the democratic Republic of the congo, Malawi and Tanzania.

Diagnosis
The male of P. morogorom gen.et sp.nov.can be recognized by the long, strongly tapered RTA.The female has a characteristic epigyne with central depression showing two dark areas, flanked by a kidneyshaped area on either side and the inverted funnel-shaped pattern in front.

Etymology
The species name is an arbitrary combination of letters forming a noun in apposition and containing 'morogoro', the region where the types were found.

Note
Georeferences of the collections made in 1984 are approximations.3A, C-D); legs and sternum brownish orange (Fig. 3B); abdomen dorsum grey with pair of adjacent pale spots in front, a pair of pale spots in the middle followed by white bar and spot in front of spinnerets; four reddish apodemes in frontal half clearly delimited and two above the pedicel (Fig. 3A); sides grey with well delimited frontal apodemes; venter grey with lateral rows of apodemes and two rows of small apodemes behind well developed brownish epiandrum.Tracheal spiracle with small rectangular scutum followed by white membranous area in front of yellowish brown spinnerets.

Distribution
Known from the Uzungwa and Uluguru Mts. in Tanzania (Fig. 16).

Diagnosis
The males of P. aleykyela gen.et sp.nov.are easily recognized by large palpal patella and the conspicuous basal extension of the tegulum.

Distribution
Known from miombo woodland in northern Malawi and northern Tanzania (Fig. 16).

Diagnosis
The male of P. avonova gen.et sp.nov. is easily recognized by the characters of the palp: the swollen patella, the thick RTA, the ridged tegulum and the sickle shaped embolus.The female has a characteristic epigyne with longitudinal central depression separated from the posterior margin by a rectangular plate.

Etymology
The species name is an arbitrary combination of letters forming a noun in apposition and containing 'nova' (new) as the genus as well as the species are new.
* 3 long, slender setae + 2 or 3 short, thick, distal setae  Colour: carapace dark brown without silvery setae (Fig. 8C-D); chelicerae, sternum and legs medium brown without white setae; abdomen: pattern as in male but without white setae and not sclerotized in front of epigastric fold but for epigyne.Further as in male.

Distribution
Known from forest in Muheza District in Tanzania (Fig. 16).

Diagnosis
The male of P. obmoimiombo gen.et sp.nov. is easily recognized by its colour, the inconspicuous cheliceral lamina and the characters of the palp: the unmodified patella, the presence of a dorsolateral tibial apophysis JOCQUÉ R. & HENRARD A., Palindroma gen.nov., with novel zodariid synapomorphy and a bifid RTA, the large subtegulum with ridges and posterior swelling and the thin embolus lying in a groove of the tegulum.

Etymology
The species name is an arbitrary combination of letters forming a noun in apposition and containing 'miombo', the type of woodland in which the type material was collected.
Colour: carapace black with numerous silvery hairs (Fig. 11A-C); chelicerae dark brown with white setae in proximal half, medium brown with dark setae in distal half and white distomesal part (Fig. 11D); sternum orange; coxae and trochanters brownish orange, femora dark brown to black with numerous white setae; patellae and tibiae dark brown with few white setae; metatarsi and tarsi medium brown (Fig. 11E); abdomen dark grey with silvery setae, four reddish apodemes, three anastomosing pale spots in front of brownish spinnerets; sides dark grey with few silvery setae and reddish frontal apodeme; venter dark grey with two rows of small apodemes and a few near sides; orange in front of epigastric fold.

Distribution
Known from Mikembo Sanctuary near Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Fig. 16).

Diagnosis
The male of P. sinis gen.et sp.nov. is easily recognized by the characters of the palp: the very simple RTA, which is a tiny protrusion, the short sharp, embolus and whitish setae on legs and abdomen.

Etymology
The species name is an arbitrary combination of letters forming a noun in apposition and containing 'sin' (Spanish for 'without') referring to the virtual absence of an RTA.
Colour: carapace dark chestnut brown with silvery setae in eye region and around fovea (Fig. 14A-C); chelicerae, sternum and legs medium orange-brown; anterior tarsi yellow; sparse dorsal white hairs on all T and Mt and on t II, dense on t I. Abdomen: dorsum dark grey with five small pale spots in anterior half, and large one in posterior half, all covered with white setae; four apodemes well developed; sides dark grey with sparse white hairs in anterior half; venter pale grey, well separated from sides by oblique pale band on either side; with two rows of apodemes; spinnerets yellowish brown.
Carapace finely reticulated, with conspicuous dip at level of fovea.

Distribution
In Jocqué (2009) and Jocqué et al. (2013) it was argued that the spider fauna of miombo woodlands has a character of its own and hardly overlaps with that of montane or coastal forests.The presently known distribution of the genus Palindroma gen.nov. is therefore somewhat puzzling.It is the first cryptotheline genus that is found in miombo woodland but it also occurs in coastal forest, even if countries in southern Africa and is probably the least studied ecoregion of the continent.More detailed studies of the ecoregion will doubtlessly discover more species of the genus and most likely species that are closely related to P. obmoimiombo gen.et sp.nov.
JOCQUÉ R. & HENRARD A., Palindroma gen.nov., with novel zodariid synapomorphy RTA with broad base strongly tapered to sharp extremity turned upward and outward; cymbium with several spines in distal half; subtegulum strongly sclerotized; tegulum with retrolateral knob; embolus originating on prolateral distal part of tegulum, broad at base, strongly tapered to sinuous sharp tip.
Epigyne 5C): central depression with two dark areas; large kidney-shaped area on either side; inverted funnel-shaped pattern in front.
JOCQUÉ R. & HENRARD A., Palindroma gen.nov., with novel zodariid synapomorphy Male palp: patella not modified or enlarged; tibia with ventral bunch of long setae, sharp dorsolateral apophysis pointing outward, and RTA, concavity between the two; RTA distally bifid with pointed inferior part and lamellar, truncated superior part; cymbium with basolateral flange and seven prolateral spines; subtegulum large and prominent, with three longitudinal ridges, posterior part swollen; tegulum with two parts, centre membranous; distal part with transverse groove and knob pointing back; embolus thin and whip-shaped; distal extremity in tegular groove.