New Chummidae ( Araneae ) : quadrupling the size of the clade

The recently described family Chummidae, now the sister clade of Macrobuninae, so far only known from two South African species, is extended with seven new species, six from the southern part of South Africa and one from Lesotho: Chumma bicolor sp. nov.  (♀), C. foliata sp. nov.  (♂♀), C. interfluvialis sp. nov. (♂♀), C. lesotho sp. nov. (♀), C. striata sp. nov. (♂♀), C. subridens sp. nov. (♂♀) and C. tsitsikamma sp. nov. ♂. A key to the species is provided. Although Chumma is part of a clade containing the Macrobuninae, it is argued that the family name Chummidae should remain valid.


Introduction
Whereas the creation of new families is rather commonplace (Bond et al. 2012;Polotow et al. 2015;Miller et al. 2010), the finding of a new spider family on newly collected material has become a very rare event.The monospecific Trogloraptoridae Griswold, Audisio & Ledford, 2012 is such a family and the last one that was described on newly collected specimens (Griswold et al. 2012).More than ten years earlier, another new family-level spider taxon, Chummidae Jocqué, 2001, was described on new material of two species, Chumma inquieta Jocqué, 2001 andC. gastroperforata Jocqué, 2001, from the Cape Region in South Africa (Jocqué 2001).The most remarkable character of this taxon is the presence of a field with spines on the dorsal abdominal scutum.The family, therefore, received the vernacular name 'spiny backed spiders' (Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman 2007).Since then, many more specimens were collected.These proved to contain seven new species, which are described here.With this study we quadruple the size of the clade since it will now contain nine species.A key to the species is provided.

Material and methods
Specimens were observed, drawn and measured with a Nikon SMZ 1270 and a Leica M10 stereo microscope.Details of the female genitalia and male palps were observed with a Leica MZ 16 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 (v. 3.8).The female genitalia were dissected and cleared with methylsalicylate.
Types are deposited in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (MRAC) and the National Collection of Arachnida, Pretoria, South Africa (NCA).

Etymology
The specific epithet is an adjective obviously referring to the contrasting colouration of the abdomen.

Note
On 2 February 2017, shrub beating was carried out during three hours at the type locality in search of males of the species.No extra specimens were found.
aBdomen (Fig. 1B).Pale, with yellow orange scutum with reddish apodemes; posterior half with dark patch on either side; venter, sternum and spinnerets pale yellow.Entirely covered with short spines, each socket just in front of pale spot.

Distribution
Only known from the type locality in the Western Cape Province in South Africa (Fig. 12).

Diagnosis
Males of C. foliata sp.nov.are recognized by the palpal tibia with a small pointed dorsal tooth and the large foliate dorsal part of the RTA and the long, slender, anterior projection of the tegulum; the female is recognized by the epigyne with two large copulatory openings in the centre.

Etymology
The specific epithet refers to the foliate upper RTA.
aBdomen.Dorsum with poorly sclerotized marbled scutum with few long supple setae in front, sockets on pale circles, apodemes slightly impressed; sides and venter pale with few apodemes in two rows; transverse group of setae in front of spinnerets.
Legs.Anterior pairs of tarsi slightly curved, not fusiform.All Fe with one dorsal spine, Fe I with one prolateral spine.epigyne (Fig. 3E-F).With two large, rounded copulatory openings leading directly into the spermathecae, separated by broad scape, delimiting a membranous area in front of the epigastric fold.

Distribution
Known from the Amatola Mts in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa (Fig. 12).

Diagnosis
Males of C. interfluvialis sp.nov.are recognized by the presence of prolateral spines on P III, the palpal tibia with dorsal apophysis with rounded tip and foliate ventral apophysis with dorsal tooth, and the sinuous embolus; the female is characterized by the epigyne with a dark roughly oval central area near the posterior margin.

Holotype
aBdomen.Dorsum covered entirely with brown scutum.Anterior setae spine-shaped, in sockets in front of small pale circles, these smaller further backwards, absent from half way length; sides and venter pale, provided with dense cover of setae and rows of apodemes.
Legs.Tarsi I and II fusiform.Fe I with one dorsal and one prolateral spine, Fe II with one dorsal spine; Pa III with one proximal spine and a distal row of three spines.

Diagnosis
The female of C. lesotho sp.nov. is recognized by the small triangle in the centre of the epigyne and the obliquely positioned spermathecae provided with a retromedian extension and a frontal protuberance.

Etymology
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition taken from the type locality.CarapaCe.Pale yellow, with darker pale brown striae and pattern in cephalic area; chelicerae, legs and sternum pale yellow (Fig. 6A-B).
aBdomen.With subcircular pale brown scutum, anterior part with spiniform setae in sockets in front of pale circles becoming smaller backwards, absent from one third of scutum length.
Legs.Tarsi slightly curved.Fe I with one dorsal and one prolateral spine, Fe II with one dorsal spine.6C-d).Small rectangular depression, preceded by a narrow ridge; spermathecae visible in transparency, subglobular, provided with tapered retro-median extension and anterior protuberance.

Distribution
Known only from the type locality in central Lesotho (Fig. 12).

Etymology
The specific epithet 'striata', Latin for 'striped', refers to the stripes on the cephalothorax.CarapaCe.Yellow with pattern of medium brown stripes (Fig. 7A); chelicerae and sternum yellow.

Male
The male was described by Jocqué (2001) as paratype of Chumma gastroperforata.The male habitus is shown in Fig. 7B, the palp in Fig. 7C-E.

Distribution
The species is known from the vicinity of George in the Western Cape Province (Fig. 12).Chumma subridens sp.nov.urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act

Diagnosis
The male of C. subridens sp.nov. is recognized by the shape of the double RTA and by the very short truncated embolus and tiny membranous MA; the female is characterized by the epigyne with slightly procurved posterior rim and the oval spermathecae slightly tapered towards the centre.

Etymology
The specific epithet subridens is derived from the Latin verb 'subridere', to smile, and refers to the pattern of the epigyne.CarapaCe.Pale yellow with faint pale brown pattern (Fig. 9A); chelicerae, sternum and legs pale yellow.
aBdomen.With medium brown scutum with dispersed spines, each socket in front of small white spot; four apodemes, poorly impressed; sides and venter white with few apodemes.
Legs.One prolateral spine on femur I. CoLour and patterns.Very similar to male, but abdominal scutum smaller, covering only two-thirds of dorsum (Fig. 9B).

Distribution
Known from the type locality in the Eastern Cape Province and from the Western Cape Province in the vicinity of Table Mountain in South Africa (Fig. 12).The identity of the latter specimens remains doubtful and they were, therefore, not included as paratypes.

Diagnosis
Males of C. tsitsikamma sp.nov.are recognized by the dorsal bifid RTA with a sharp spur pointing up and backward, and by the solid embolus pointing down.

Etymology
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition taken from the type locality.CarapaCe.Pale yellow with slightly darker striae and cephalic area; chelicerae, legs and sternum pale yellow (Fig. 11A-B).

Holotype
European Journal of Taxonomy 412: 1-25 (2018) aBdomen.With pale brown scutum, strongly narrowed in front; anterior third with supple setae, the frontal rows with sockets in front of pale circle; scutum with four impressed apodemes and two dorsal and two lateral depressions; sides and venter white, with two rows of apodemes.

Discussion
It is possible that the genus Chumma contains two species groups or deserves to be split into two genera.
An obvious synapomorphy of one of the genera would be the male with abdominal depressions as in C. gastroperforata, but an unpublished morphological analysis did not result in two sister groups with these males.
The fact that the two initial species of Chumma were described in their own family (Jocqué 2001), reflects the problem with their systematic position from the beginning.Initially, the family was considered as being close to the Zodariidae (Jocqué 2001) but later studies, mainly based on molecular analyses, showed that it is sister to Chresiona Simon, 1903, part of the Macrobuninae (Miller et al. 2010;Dimitrov et al. 2017;Wheeler et al. 2017).This subfamily was considered part of the Amaurobiidae for a long time, but according to the studies of Miller et al. (2010), Dimitrov et al. (2017) and Wheeler et al. (2017) it should deserve family status.It might, therefore, be questioned whether the name Chummidae Jocqué, 2001 is still valid in view of its recent placement.However, considering the morphological differences between Chumma and the other genera in the clade (Chresiona) it is most likely that the species of Chumma will deserve subfamily rank (Chumminae) as sister of the other species in the family (Macrobuninae Lehtinen, 1967) (Dimitrov et al. 2017).In accordance with the rule 35.5 concerning "Precedence for names in use at higher rank" in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (2012), Chummidae will then remain valid since it was used as family name before Macrobunidae.
The distribution of the genus is remarkable: it is apparently restricted to the temperate climate zone in the southern part of South Africa, but occurs not only in the particular habitats that are typical for that zone JOCQUÉ R. & ALDERWEIRELDT M., New Chummidae (Araneae) like fynbos or temperate forest, but also in grassland, montane forest and coastal shrub.Representatives of the genus now also have a large altitudinal range from sea level to more than 2200 m a.s.l.Most species are found in the litter layer or near the ground, but C. bicolor sp.nov.was found by beating large shrubs.The species appear to have very small distribution areas, except C. subridens sp.nov., which was found from the Eastern Cape Province to Signal Hill at the far western end of the Western Cape Province.Unfortunately, the species appear to be rather rare and most species are found in very few localities with a small number of specimens.Thus, it is difficult to specify the preferred habitat of the species.The exceptionally large distribution of C. subridens sp.nov.is, therefore, difficult to explain.
It is possible that it occupies a particular habitat, but the information on the conditions in which the specimens were found is not sufficiently detailed to allow such an explanation.
Tibia with large RTA, dorsal one with large rounded flap and short curved tip, ventral one short, massive, truncated at tip, with concave ventral sides; cymbium with triangular extension at retrolateral base, fitting in concavity between RTA; tegulum with slender, sharp ventral prong; embolus short, broad, strongly curved and truncated.CoLour and patterns.Very similar to male (Fig.3B).Length 1.90, width 1.80, almost as wide as long.
Tibia with many long setae, with two apophyses: dorsal one with flat twisted base, rounded dorsal prong and sharp ventral prong; ventral one short with short sharp tip pointing upwards; embolus central on distal part of tegulum, flat, slightly sinuous, MA with elongate membranous prong.