The spider genus Pterotricha in Iran, with the description of a new genus (Araneae, Gnaphosidae)

Abstract The spider genus Pterotricha Kulczyński, 1903 (Gnaphosidae) is surveyed in Iran. To date, three species of this genus were known in the country: P.loeffleri (Roewer, 1955), P.lentiginosa (C. L. Koch, 1837) and P.pseudoparasyriaca Nuruyeva & Huseynov, 2016. Here two new species are described, P.kovblyuki Zamani & Marusik, sp. n. (♂, western Iran) and P.montana Zamani & Marusik, sp. n. (♀, central and southwestern Iran), and P.cf.dalmasi Fage, 1929 (from Algeria to Jordan) is reported in Iran for the first time. Pterotrichatikaderi Gajbe, 1983 syn. n. (India) and P.loeffleri (Roewer, 1955), syn. n. are synonymized with P.strandi Spassky, 1936 (hitherto known from Turkmenistan only). The record of P.lentiginosa from Iran is apparently based on misidentification. A distribution map of the genus in Iran with new provincial records is provided. In addition, Iranotricha Zamani & Marusik, gen. n., a new genus closely related to Pterotricha, is described from southeastern Iran with the type species I.lutensis Zamani & Marusik, sp. n.


Introduction
Gnaphosidae is a large, globally distributed family currently comprising 2196 extant species in 124 genera (WSC 2018). Of these, the Old World genus Pterotricha Kulczyński, 1903, currently comprises 39 valid species primarily distributed in arid and semi-arid habitats of the Middle East, North Africa, and central Asia (WSC 2018, Levy 1995. These are medium-sized (5-13 mm) Gnaphosinae spiders, which are distinguished from other genera of the subfamily by their very long, rigid cylindrical, tube-shaped anterior spinnerets extending far beyond the other spinnerets (Levy 1995). The first Iranian record of this genus was provided by Roewer (1955) who described P. loeffleri (sub Bobineus l., Cithaeronidae) and recorded P. lentiginosa (C. L. Koch, 1837) for the first time from Iran. Later, P. pseudoparasyriaca Nuruyeva & Huseynov, 2016 was recorded in the country by Zamani et al. (2017). The goals of this paper are to survey all records of this genus in Iran, including two species new to science and one new to the Iranian fauna, and describe a closely related new genus and its type species.

Materials and methods
Specimens were photographed using an Olympus Camedia E-520 camera attached to an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope or to the eye-piece of an Olympus BH-2 transmission microscope and a SEM JEOL JSM-5200 scanning electron microscope. Digital images were prepared using "CombineZP" image stacking software (http://www. hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/). Illustrations of internal genitalia were made after clearing in 10% KOH aqueous solution and exposure for a few minutes in an alcohol/ water solution of Chlorazol Black. Lengths of leg segments were measured on the dorsal side. Leg measurements are listed as total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). The description of the palp refers to the left one. All measurements are given in millimetres. Abbreviations not explained in the text are listed below:

ALS
anterior lateral spinneret AME anterior median eye ALE anterior lateral eye PME posterior median eye PLE posterior lateral eye Comments. The genus belongs to Gnaphosinae, and like all other members of this subfamily has a serrated keel on chelicera. It is easily distinguished from all other Gnaphosinae by long to very long spinnerets (Figs 1c,4a,11g), the male palp with squarrose tibial apophysis and a heavily sclerotized (non-membranous) and pointed "conductor". Most of the species have a stylus on embolus (vs. lacking in all other genera).
Distribution. The genus is known from Spain to South Africa, to western India, with a single, doubtful record of Pterotricha saga (Dönitz & Strand, 1906)  Diagnosis. This species closely resembles P. conspersa (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1876). Males are diagnosed by the different shape of the base of the tegular apophysis (sub-circular in P. dalmasi vs. irregularly shaped in P. conspersa) and the retrolateral tibial apophysis (more massive in P. conspersa), while females can be distinguished by the different shape of the epigynal septum (anterior depression pointed posteriorly and median curves pointed anteriorly or anterolaterally in P. dalmasi (Figs 1d, e) vs. the anterior depression pointed anteriorly and median curves pointed posteriorly in P. conspersa) (Levy 1995).
Comments. The species was described from males. Levy (1995) was the first to describe females of this species. He provided figures of two "forms" of the epigyne (Levy 1995: figs 74-75). The epigyne illustrated on fig. 75 is rather similar to the epigyne of our specimen. Apparently, the small (tiny) receptacular gland present in the Iranian specimen was overlooked in the specimens from Israel, and perhaps the female specimens illustrated by Levy (1995) belong to two different species. A lack of samples containing both males and females does not allow us to conclude which of the two "forms" of the females are conspecific with P. dalmasi.
Records in Iran. Hormozgan (Fig. 16 Etymology. This species is named after the Ukrainian arachnologist Mykola Kovblyuk in recognition of his contributions to the taxonomy of gnaphosid spiders. Diagnosis. The new species is most similar to P. dalmasi by lacking a stylus on the embolus, the similar shape of the tegular apophysis and the tibial apophysis with a spine like tip (cf. Figs 2e-g and figs 71-73 in Levy 1995). The two species can be separated by the thinner tip of the conductor and the tegular apophysis which is longer than wide in the new species, vs. wider than long in P. dalmasi (cf. Fig. 2e and figs 71-73 in Levy 1995).
Palp as in Figs 2c-g; patella almost as long as tibia, patella+tibia as long as cymbium; tibial apophysis with one arm, posterior part rounded, anterior part with a spine like tip; tegular apophysis (Ta) longer than wide with retrolateral lobe and large base; conductor (Co) large, tip rounded; embolus (Em) simple and without a stylus.
Female. Unknown. Record in Iran. Ilam ( Figure 16). Distribution. Western Iran. Diagnosis. Among Iranian Pterotricha, this species is most similar to P. strandi, which has a stylus of the embolus, a broad conductor, and a long septum. Males of the two species differ by the shape of the tibial apophysis (tapering in P. pseudoparasyriaca vs. rectangular in P. strandi), a blunt tip of conductor in P. pseudoparasyriaca vs. a sharply pointed tip in P. strandi, as well as by the shape of the tegular apophysis (with an elongate base in P. pseudoparasyriaca vs. unmodified in P. strandi) (Figs 4d, 5a-c). Females of P. pseudoparasyriaca are easily distinguished from those of P. strandi by having a looped copulatory duct and a distinct, square epigynal fovea vs. copulatory duct short, unlooped and indistinct fovea (Figure 4e, f ).

Pterotricha strandi
Description. Well described by Marusik et al. (2013) and Marusik (2016). The male of this species has very long and widely spaced anterior lateral spinnerets, 8 × longer than wide, spaced by 2.5 diameters of a single ALS.
Comments. Pterotricha loeffleri was first described in Bobineus Roewer, 1955 (Cithaeronidae) based on the holotype male collected in Tehran Province, and later transferred to Pterotricha by Platnick (1991). Marusik et al. (2013) studied the type material and one female specimen collected in Bushehr Province and provisionally considered them conspecific due to the similarities in size and eye pattern and the similarities of the epigyne with the closely related P. strandi. Considering that the latter species is poorly illustrated and that the type material was not located, the authors    mentioned the probability of the synonymy of the two names (Marusik et al. 2013). Because we were able to collect both sexes of this species from the same localities, we can now confirm that the male and female specimens studied by Marusik et al. (2013) are conspecific. As a result of our survey, we found that this species has a rather broad distribution. Despite differences between Iranian and Turkmenian populations, we consider these as merely variations and therefore, consider P. loeffleri a junior synonym of P. strandi. Although we were unable to borrow the type material for P. tikaderi Gajbe, 1983 (India), based on photographs of the palp (Figure 6c-f ) and habitus figures provided to us, we conclude that P. tikaderi is also a junior synonym of P. strandi.
Ecology. This is a nocturnal spider, mostly hiding beneath rocks and inside crevices during the day and hunting at night. According to our observations, this species doesn't make silken retreats. It is widespread on the Iranian Plateau, occurring in mountainous areas and sand dunes and sometimes near human dwellings, and two specimens were collected in a cave near the entrance. Mature females can probably be found throughout the year, while adult males can mostly be found from mid-autumn to late spring (Zamani 2016

Etymology.
A combination of Iran, the type locality of the species, and "tricha", referring to the similarity with the genus Pterotricha. The gender is feminine.
Diagnosis. The genus differs from all Gnaphosinae by lacking a cheliceral keel. It is most similar to Pterotricha by having long anterior lateral spinnerets and the embolus similar to that of P. cambridgei (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) and P. levantina Levy, 1995 by having a modified anterior part with an invagination. Iranotricha gen. n. differs from Pterotricha by lacking a cheliceral keel, having the two prolateral teeth greatly reduced and separated from each other (vs. well developed and fused at the bases in Pterotricha), having modified setae (long terminal setae (Ts), long setae (Ls), barbed setae (Bs), with longer plumage (Ss) on chelicera which are lacking in Pterotricha (cf .  Figs 11a, b, 12a-c and 12d-f ), an embolus with a spine (Es) (lacking in Pterotricha), a small conductor (smaller and thinner than the embolus vs. larger and wider than the embolus) and an elongate tegular apophysis lacking a large base (vs. tegular apophysis with wide base, much wider than tip).
Description. Same as for the species.
Comments. Long spinnerets and the presence of a sclerotized (non-membranous) conductor behind the embolus indicate that new genus is most probably related to Pterotricha. Iranotricha gen. n. is also similar to Scotognapha Dalmas, 1920, a genus restricted to the Canary Islands (WSC 2018). Scotognapha has a greatly reduced, vestigial keel (the new genus lacks a keel) but has plumose "hairs" as in Pterotricha and Iranotricha gen. n.
Composition. Only the type species. Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the Lut Desert, the type locality of the species.

Iranotricha lutensis
Diagnosis. The species can be easily recognized from the Pterotricha species with long spinnerets by lacking a cheliceral keel. The males of this species can be also recognized due to numerous strong spines on the legs ( Figure 10d) and a spine on tarsus IV (Figure 11d). Pterotricha species have weak spines and lack a spine on tarsus IV.
Palp as in Figs 13-14; patella and tibia elongate, almost as long as femur and longer than cymbium; patella with very strong and long macrosetae, >1.5 x longer than tibia; tibia cylindrical, unmodified; tibia with relatively small retrolateral apophysis (not longer than diameter of tibia) with tip bent anteriorly, prolateral side with three strong and long macrosetae of equal length to the tibia; cymbium long, approx. 3 x longer than wide with three strong dorsal macrosetae; tegular apophysis elongate, almost cylindrical, with unmodified base; conductor small, partly hidden by embolus; embolus broad at the base, with a strong retrolateral spine (Es); anterior part of embolus modified, widened, with an invagination (Ec) corresponding (fitting) to conductor (Co), tip of embolus stylus-like, looped, directed dorsally and terminating at the tip of the conductor Female. Unknown. Comments. It is unclear whether the opening of the embolus is at the tip or before the loop, and as this is the only specimen available at this time, we did not dissect it. Ecology. The holotype was collected wandering on sand dunes in a habitat lacking any vegetation (Figure 15d). Two subadult specimens were also observed (but not collected) in another locality while they were taking refuge under two large stones. Recently, the hottest place inhabited by spiders was reported to be the Death Valley, Inyo, California, with the highest ground temperature measured at 56.7 °C (Mammola et al. 2017), but the sand surface of the Lut Desert, where the holotype was collected, has been recently measured at temperatures as high as 78.2 °C (Akhani and Aghakouchak pers. comm., . Records in Iran. Kerman (Figure 16). Distribution. Lut Desert, southeastern Iran.

Conclusions
As a result of this study, the number of species of Pterotricha known from Iran increased from three  to six. Two of the species are currently known only from Iran (P. kovblyuki Zamani & Marusik, sp. n., P. montana Zamani & Marusik, sp. n.), and one is known only from Iran and adjacent Azerbaijan (P. pseudoparasyriaca). As a result of two new synonymies, the range of P. strandi is broadened, representing one of the largest ranges in the genus. We assume that the actual number of species in this genus occurring in Iran is higher considering that many remote, desert habitats have not been properly investigated regarding arachnofauna.