Difference between revisions of "Austrarchaea thompsoni"

Latest revision as of 12:29, 30 August 2012

Taxonavigation

Ordo: Araneae
Familia: Archaeidae
Genus: Austrarchaea

Name

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

Vernacular name

Carbine Tableland Assassin Spider

Type material

Holotype male: Devils Thumb area, [Daintree National Park (Mossman Gorge Section)], 10 km NW. of Mossman, Queensland, Australia, [16°27'S, 145°17'E], pyrethrum knockdown, tropical rainforest, 1000–1180 m, 10.X.1982, G. Monteith, D. Yeates, G. Thompson (QMB S30840).

Etymology

. The specific epithet is a patronym in honour of Geoff Thompson, for his ongoing efforts in collecting and documenting the invertebrate rainforest fauna of the Wet Tropics, and for collecting the only known specimen of this species.

Diagnosis

Austrarchaea thompsoni can be distinguished from all other Archaeidae from north-eastern Queensland except Austrarchaea karenae, Austrarchaea tealei sp. n. and Austrarchaea wallacei by the presence of a triangular spur on the embolus (Fig. 10D); and from Austrarchaea karenae, Austrarchaea tealei sp. n. and Austrarchaea wallacei by the very small tegular sclerite 1 (TS 1), which is not visible in ventral view (Fig. 10D), and by the more proximally positioned embolic spur, which is situated near the base of the exposed embolic portion (Fig. 10D).

Description

Holotype male: Total length 2.97; leg I femur 3.23; 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. 10A). Carapace tall (CH/CL ratio 2.13); 1.18 long, 2.51 high, 1.13 wide, ‘neck’ 0.63 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 0.69), carapace gently sloping posterior to HPC; ‘head’ not strongly elevated dorsally (post-ocular ratio 0.25). Chelicerae with short brush of accessory setae on anterior face of paturon (Fig. 10B). Abdomen 1.64 long, 1.23 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 10C–E) of Type A morphology (Fig. 6), with large, retrolaterally directed, arched conductor; embolus distally directed, slightly sinuous, with short triangular spur situated near base of exposed embolic portion, embolus projecting beyond distal rim of conductor by slightly less than 1/2 length of exposed embolic portion; tegular sclerite 3 (TS 3) short, spur-like, with constricted tegular base and sharply pointed, claw-like apex; TS 2-2a looped beneath overhanging retrolateral edge of conductor, TS 2 with rounded, subtriangular apex, TS 2a projecting beyond distal rim of conductor to near tip of embolus; TS 1 very small, obscured by TS 2-3, not visible in ventral view.
Female: Unknown.

Distribution and habitat

Austrarchaea thompsoni is known only from Devils Thumb, on the Carbine Tableland 10 km west-north-west of Mossman (Figs 19, 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 10. Austrarchaea thompsoni sp. n. A–E, Holotype male (QMB S30840) from Devils Thumb, Daintree 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)2-3 = tegular sclerites 2-3. Scale bars: A = 1.0 mm; D = 0.2 mm.  Figure 19. Distribution of Austrarchaea thompsoni sp. n.: A, topographic map showing the known distrib ution of Archaeidae in the north-eastern Queensland Wet Tropics bioregion, with collection localities for Austrarchaea thompsoni 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.