Difference between revisions of "Austrarchaea karenae"

Latest revision as of 12:29, 30 August 2012

Taxonavigation

Ordo: Araneae
Familia: Archaeidae
Genus: Austrarchaea

Name

Austrarchaea karenae Rix & Harvey sp. n. – Wikispecies link – ZooBank link – Pensoft Profile

Vernacular name

Windsor Tableland Assassin Spider

Type material

Holotype male: Windsor Tableland, [Windsor Tableland National Park], 1.2 km past barracks, Queensland, Australia, 16°15'S, 145°02'E, QM berlesate, stick brushing, rainforest, 1060 m, 24.XI.1997, G. Monteith (QMB S43060).

Etymology

The specific epithet is a patronym in honour of Dr Karen Edward, for her contributions to our understanding of Wet Tropics biogeography, and for her great friendship to MGR and MSH over many years.

Diagnosis

Austrarchaea karenae can be distinguished from all other Archaeidae from north-eastern Queensland except Austrarchaea tealei sp. n., Austrarchaea thompsoni sp. n. and Austrarchaea wallacei by the presence of a triangular spur on the embolus (Figs 9D–E); from Austrarchaea thompsoni sp. n. by the presence of a prominent, triangular tegular sclerite 1 (TS 1), which is visible in ventral view (Fig. 9D); and from Austrarchaea tealei sp. n. and Austrarchaea wallacei by the shape of tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3), which has a single, sharply pointed process distally (Fig. 9D).

Description

Holotype male: Total length 2.97; leg I femur 3.17; F1/CL ratio 2.74. Cephalothorax dark reddish-brown; legs tan-brown with darker annulations; abdomen mottled grey-brown and beige, with darker brown dorsal scute and sclerites (Fig. 9A). Carapace tall (CH/CL ratio 2.12); 1.15 long, 2.49 high, 1.09 wide, ‘neck’ 0.61 wide; bearing two pairs of rudimentary horns; highest point of pars cephalica (HPC) near posterior third of ‘head’ (ratio of HPC to post-ocular length 0.65), carapace gently sloping posterior to HPC; ‘head’ moderately elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.32). Chelicerae with short brush of accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 9B). Abdomen 1.59 long, 1.13 wide; with two pairs of dorsal hump-like tubercles (HT 1-4); dorsal scute fused anteriorly to epigastric sclerites, extending posteriorly to first pair of hump-like tubercles; HT 3-4 each covered by separate dorsal sclerites. Unexpanded pedipalp (Figs 9C–E) of Type A morphology (Fig. 6), with large, retrolaterally directed, arched conductor; embolus distally directed, slightly sinuous, with short triangular spur adjacent to distal rim of conductor, embolus projecting beyond distal rim of conductor by ~1/2 length of exposed embolic portion; tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3) short, spur-like, with flattened proximal portion and sharply pointed, claw-like apex; TS 2-2a looped over retrolateral edge of conductor, TS 2 with pointed, subtriangular apex, TS 2a projecting beyond distal rim of conductor but not extending to near tip of embolus; TS 1 broadly triangular in ventral view.
Female: Unknown.

Distribution and habitat

Austrarchaea karenae is known only from the Windsor Tableland, 44 km north-west of Mossman (Figs 18, 25). The single known specimen was collected in high altitude tropical rainforest.

Conservation status

Unknown (data deficient).

Original Description

• Rix, M; Harvey, M; 2012: Australian Assassins, Part III: A review of the Assassin Spiders (Araneae, Archaeidae) of tropical north-eastern Queensland ZooKeys, 218: 1-50. doi

Images

'Figure 6. Morphological differences between the five pedipalp types (Types A-E) identified for species of Austrarchaea from north-eastern Queensland, with left bulbs illustrated in ventral view at scale-identical sizes. Type A pedipalps are shared among at least five species from the Wet Tropics bioregion; Types B-E are autapomorphic for single species. Note especially the variation in the size and shape of the bulb, and the shape and orientation of the conductor. C = conductor; E = embolus; ESp = embolic spur; (TS)1-3 = tegular sclerites 1-3. Scale bar = 0.2 mm.  Figure 9. Austrarchaea karenae sp. n. A–E, Holotype male (QMB S43060) from Windsor Tableland, Windsor Tableland National Park, NE. Queensland: A, cephalothorax and abdomen, lateral view; B, chelicerae, lateral view, showing accessory setae; C–D, pedipalpal bulb, ventral view; E, detail of distal tegular sclerites, retrolateral view. C = conductor; E = embolus; ESp = embolic spur; T = tegulum; (TS)1-3 = tegular sclerites 1-3. Scale bars: A = 1.0 mm; D = 0.2 mm.  Figure 18. Distribution of Austrarchaea karenae sp. n.: A, topographic map showing the known distribution of Archaeidae in the north-eastern Queensland Wet Tropics bioregion, with collection localities for Austrarchaea karenae highlighted in yellow; B–C, topographic and satellite maps showing detail of inset (A). Labelled boundaries in (B) denote upland subregional zones of faunal endemism identified by Winter et al. (1984), Williams et al. (1996) and other authors for the northern Wet Tropics (modified from Edward 2011). Small squares in (B–C) denote unidentified juvenile specimens; small circles denote unidentified female specimens; large circles denote described species of Austrarchaea. BM = Black Mountain Corridor; CU = Carbine Uplands; FU = Mt Finnigan Uplands; TU = Thornton Uplands; WU = Windsor Uplands.  ' Figure 25. Summary distribution of the Austrarchaea daviesae species-group in tropical north-eastern Queensland, showing collections records for described species (labelled, with black circles) and unidentified juveniles or females (yellow circles) (see Table 1). Note the high proportion of unidentified specimens, especially within the Wet Tropics bioregion between Cooktown and Ingham.