Wednesday, January 29, 2025

[Arachnida • 2024] Otacilia subshanxi • A New Otacilia Thorell, 1897 Species (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Hubei Province, China

 

Otacilia subshanxi 
Guo, Mu & Zhang, 2024  


Abstract
Background: Phrurolithidae is a family of spiders with 405 species belonging to 25 genera distributed worldwide. Notably, 213 species belonging to 17 genera have been recorded in China.

New information: A new species of the genus Otacilia Thorell, 1897 is described from Duheyuan Nature Reserve, Hubei Province, China. Diagnosis, morphological description, living photos and photos of the habitus and genitalia of the new species are provided.


Living photos of Otacilia subshanxi sp. nov.: A Male; B Female
(photographs by Qianle Lu).


Otacilia subshanxi sp. nov.

Diagnosis: This new species resembles O. shanxi Mu & Zhang, 2021 in having a similar femoral apophysis, atrium, curved connecting tubes, but it can be recognised by: 1) the wide embolus (vs. thin, cf. Fig. 3C and fig. 7F in Mu and Zhang 2021), 2) the thin retrolateral tibial apophysis (vs. wide, cf. Fig. 3B and fig. 7G in Mu and Zhang (2021)) and 3) the thin median septum (vs. wide, cf. Fig. 3E and fig. 7F in Mu and Zhang (2021)).

Etymology: This species is named for its similarity to O. shanxi Mu & Zhang, 2021.

 
Minghao Guo, Yannan Mu and Feng Zhang. 2024. A New Otacilia Thorell, 1897 Species from Hubei Province, China (Araneae, Phrurolithidae). Biodiversity Data Journal. 12: e137014. DOI: doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e137014