Strange new spiders: on Roddenberryus, a new and unusual caponiid genus (Araneae, Caponiidae)

  • Alexander Sánchez-Ruiz Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Zoologia, Laboratório de Aracnologia, Av. Perimetral, 1901, Terra Firme, CEP 66077−830, Belém, Pará, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8204-2041
  • Alexandre B. Bonaldo Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Zoologia, Laboratório de Aracnologia, Av. Perimetral, 1901, Terra Firme, CEP 66077−830, Belém, Pará, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-5110
Keywords: Synspermiata, nopines, taxonomy, Neotropical region

Abstract

The new nopine genus Roddenberryus gen. nov. is erected to include in total five species: three new species, R. kirk gen. et sp. nov. (male and female) from Costa Rica, R. spock gen. et sp. nov. (female) from Campeche, Mexico and R. mccoy gen. et sp. nov. (male) from Baja California Sur, Mexico, as well as two species previously misplaced in Caponina Simon, i.e., R. sargi (Pickard-Cambridge, 1899) gen. et comb. nov. from Guatemala and R. pelegrina (Bryant, 1940) gen. et comb. nov. from Cuba. A male specimen reported as C. sargi Pickard-Cambridge from Costa Rica by E. Kritscher (1957) is assigned to Roddenberryus kirk together with one female collected at the same locality. The new genus is characterized by the distally projected endites and a triangular, projected labium, a conformation unique among nopines; also by a triangular, very short, scaly gladius, serrula with interspersed multiple tooth rows, and a tarsal organ with strongly projected margins. Roddenberryus shares with Tarsonops Chamberlin the cracked tarsi and metatarsi, with multiple adesmatic joints intertwined on the cuticle and an unusual internal respiratory system with both posterior tracheae fused in a single trunk.

References

Brescovit A.D. & Sánchez-Ruiz A. 2016. Descriptions of two new genera of the spider family Caponiidae (Arachnida, Araneae) and an update of Tisentnops and Taintnops from Brazil and Chile. ZooKeys 622: 47–84. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.622.8682

Bryant E.B. 1940. Cuban spiders in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 86: 247–532.

Dippenaar-Schoeman A.S., Haddad C.R., Foord S.H. & Lotz L.N. 2020. The Caponiidae of South Africa, ver. 1. South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide, AFRAS.

Galán-Sánchez M.A. & Álvarez-Padilla F. 2022. A new genus of caponiid spiders with its phylogenetic placement within Nopinae and the description of a new species of Orthonops Chamberlin, 1924 from Eastern Mexico (Araneae: Synspermiata, Caponiidae). Zootaxa 5128 (4): 547–573. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5128.4.5

Haddad C.R. 2015. A revision of the southern African two-eyed spider genus Diploglena (Araneae: Caponiidae). African Invertebrates 56 : 343–363. https://doi.org/10.5733/afin.056.0208

Kritscher E. 1957. Bisher unbekannt gebliebene Araneen-Männchen und Weibchen des Wiener Naturhistorischen Museums (1. Teil). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 61: 254–272.

Pickard-Cambridge F.O. 1899. Arachnida – Araneida and Opiliones. Biologia Centrali-Americana, Zoology 2 : 41–88.

Sánchez-Ruiz A. & Brescovit A.D. 2015. On the taxonomic placement of the Cuban spider Nops ariguanabo Alayón and the description of a new Mexican Tarsonops (Araneae, Caponiidae). Zootaxa 3914 (2): 131–143. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3914.2.3

Sánchez-Ruiz A. & Brescovit A.D. 2017. A new genus with seven species of the subfamily Nopinae (Araneae, Caponiidae) from the Neotropical region. Zootaxa 4291 (1): 117–143. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4291.1.7

Sánchez-Ruiz A. & Brescovit A.D. 2018. A revision of the Neotropical spider genus Nops MacLeay (Araneae: Caponiidae) with the first phylogenetic hypothesis for the Nopinae genera. Zootaxa 4427 (1): 1–121. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4427.1.1

Sánchez-Ruiz A. Platnick N.I. & Dupérré N. 2010. A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from the West Indies. American Museum Novitates 3705: 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1206/3705.2

Sánchez-Ruiz A., Brescovit A.D. & Alayón G. 2015. Four new caponiids species (Araneae, Caponiidae) from the West Indies and redescription of Nops blandus (Bryant). Zootaxa 3972 (1): 43–64. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3972.1.3

World Spider Catalog 2022. World Spider Catalog. Version 23.0. Natural History Museum, Bern. https://doi.org/10.24436/2

Published
2023-09-06
How to Cite
Sánchez-Ruiz, A., & Bonaldo, A. B. (2023). Strange new spiders: on Roddenberryus, a new and unusual caponiid genus (Araneae, Caponiidae). European Journal of Taxonomy, 891(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2023.891.2263
Section
Research article