A new species of Incestophantes Tanasevitch , 1992 ( Araneae , Linyphiidae ) from Ukraine

A new spider species, Incestophantes australis sp. n. (Linyphiidae), found on the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine is described and illustrated. It is morphologically closely related to Incestophantes crucifer (Menge, 1866), but is easily distinguished by its palpal conformation.


Introduction
Th e genus Incestophantes Tanasevitch, 1992 includes 23 species so far (Platnick 2008).Only Incestophantes crucifer (Menge, 1866) has been recorded from the forest zone and in the Carpathian region of the Ukraine (Gnelitsa 2000(Gnelitsa , 2002;;Evtushenko 1993).It has also been mentioned from the Crimean Peninsula (Gnelitsa 2004).Comparison of the Crimean specimens of Incestophantes crucifer with those from the Ukraine revealed some morphological diff erences.It is now thought that the Crimean Incestophantes represents an undescribed species, closely related to Incestophantes crucifer (Menge, 1866).Th erefore, this species is described here as Incestophantes australis sp.n. and comparative drawings and a brief re-description of Incestophantes crucifer are provided as well.
Palp: see Fig. 2a-c.Female.General appearance as in the male.Total length 2.75; carapace 1.06 long, 0.81 wide, yellow with dark gray border and median longitudinal stripe; sternum 0.63 long, 0.59 wide, caudally extended between coxae IV, yellow with slightly darker border; posterior median eyes 0.6 diameter apart; anterior margin of chelicerae with three medium sized teeth, posterior margin with four tiny teeth close together; stridulating fi les indistinct.
Palp: see Fig. 2d-f.Female.General appearance as in the male.Total length 2.23; carapace 0.78 long, 0.62 wide, yellow with dark gray border and median longitudinal stripe; sternum 0.49 long, 0.45 wide, caudally extended between coxae IV, yellow-gray with slightly darker border.Posterior median eyes 0.6 diameter apart.Anterior margin of chelicerae with three (two medium sized, one small) teeth, posterior margin with fi ve tiny teeth close together; stridulating fi les as in male.Position of metatarsal trichobothrium: I -0.25, II -0.23, III -0.20.
Remarks.Incestophantes crucifer is known from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Yugoslavia ( Van Helsdingen 2007).Th e spiders usually inhabit dry coniferous forests as well as bogs.Th eir webs are spanned in a slanting direction from tree trunks towards the litter.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Incestophantes australis sp.n., variation of the epigyne (ventral and caudal views) of specimens from a single locality.Scale bars = 0.1 mm.

Table 2 .
Length of leg segments in female Incestophantes australis.

Table 1 .
Length of leg segments in male Incestophantes australis.

Table 3 .
Length of leg segments in male Incestophantes crucifer.

Table 4 .
Length of leg segments in female Incestophantes crucifer.