Establishing a new species group of Pseudopoda Jäger, 2000 with the description of two new species (Araneae, Sparassidae)

Abstract The huntsman spider genus Pseudopoda Jäger, 2000 contains 140 species worldwide, of which 61 have been described from China. In this paper, this knowledge is increased by the description of two new species from Yunnan Province in China. These new species, P. physematosasp. nov. (♀) and P. semilunatasp. nov. (♂♀), are treated with five previously described ones, P. bibulba Xu & Yin, 2000 (♂♀), P. signata Jäger, 2001 (♂♀), P. wu Jäger, Li & Krehenwinkel, 2015 (♂♀), P. yinae Jäger & Vedel, 2007 (♂), and P. yunnanensis Yang & Hu, 2001 (♂♀), as the newly defined Pseudopoda signata species group. The P. signata group can be distinguished from other groups within Pseudopoda by the male palps with long, slightly broad, S-shaped embolus, small but distinct tegular apophysis, pronounced dRTA and reduced vRTA, and by the female with V-shaped or W-shaped anterior margins of lateral lobes, membranous and wide first winding, long and strongly curved SIDS (sclerotised internal duct system), the latter mostly covered by the first winding. The monophyly of this group is also supported by molecular phylogenetic results mainly based on Chinese Pseudopoda species. In addition, photographs of P. bibulba (♂♀), P. signata (♂♀), and P. yunnanensis (♂♀) are provided. P. bibulba is newly recorded from Guizhou Province and P. signata is newly recorded from Yunnan Province.


Introduction
proposed the huntsman spider genus Pseudopoda by re-describing P. prompta (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885) from Pakistan and India. Since then, no fewer than 140 species have been assigned to this genus, which is now known to occur in areas from South, East and Southeast Asia. Of this diversity, 61 species have been recorded from China (World Spider Catalog 2019). Known species are mainly collected in the leaf litter, underneath tree bark, under stones and on plants (Jäger and Vedel 2007). Jäger (2001) established six species groups within the genus according to morphological evidences based on species mostly collected from Himalayas and nearby mountain ranges: P. diversipunctata group, P. latembola group, P. martensi group, P. parvipunctata group, P. prompta group, and P. schwendingeri group. Nevertheless, the monophyly of these groups has never been tested by any phylogenetical analysis. Cao et al. (2016) published a molecular phylogeny on Chinese Pseudopoda species based on COI and ITS2 genes data, focusing on DNA barcoding of this genus, without discussing species groups. Zhang et al. (2017) established the seventh Pseudopoda group (P. daliensis group including five species from Yunnan Province, China) based on morphological and molecular data which are mostly cited from Cao et al. (2016). So far, only 47 (33.57%) species were assigned to species groups, since it is challenging to group species exclusively according to morphological data of a limited set of species. Jäger (2001) described P. signata but did not assign it to any species group considering the female a transitional form between the prompta group and the martensi group. Here, we expand the baseline data for such decision by evaluating molecular (Fig. 1, edited from Zhang et al. 2017: fig. 1) as well as morphological evidence (see taxonomy), and establish the P. signata group, to which we assign seven species, two of which new to science, from Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in China.

Material and methods
All specimens were preserved in 75% ethanol and examined with an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope; details were further investigated with an Olympus BX51 compound microscope. Male and female copulatory organs were examined and illustrated after dissection from the spider bodies, vulvae were cleared with Proteinase K. Habitus photos were obtained using a Leica 205C digital microscope.
Leg measurements are shown as: total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). The numbers of spines are listed for each segment in the following order: prolateral, dorsal, retrolateral, ventral (in femora and patellae, ventral spines are absent, and the fourth digit is omitted in the spination formula). The body size classes and illustration of schematic course of internal duct system follow Jäger (2001). The terminology used in the text and figure legends follows Quan et al. (2014). All measurements are in millimetres.
We evaluated the most recent phylogenetic evidence for relationships among various Pseudopoda species (Fig. 1 Definition. This group can be recognised by the combination of the following characters: 1. Embolus distinctly longer than tegulum, slightly S-shaped, arising from tegulum between 7-AND 9-o'clock-position ( Fig. 2A); 2.
Diagnosis. P. semilunata sp. nov. differs from other members in this group by the following characters: dRTA with distinct sub-apical cavity, anterior margins of lateral lobes not strongly curved as in other species but together forming a semicircle. Males of this species are similar to those of P. wu in having a twisted embolus tip but can be distinguished by embolic tip forming a semicircle and conductor present (embolic tip forming a full circle, conductor entirely reduced in P. wu) (Figs 8A-D, 9A, B).