Descriptions of two new species of Aelurillus Simon, 1884 (Araneae, Salticidae) from the Mediterranean, with the synonymization of A. steliosi Dobroruka, 2002

Abstract Two Aelurillus species are described as new, Aelurillus alboclypeus sp. n. (♂♀, from Turkey) and Aelurillus deltshevi sp. n. (♂, from Macedonia, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan). Aelurillus steliosi Dobroruka, 2002 is synonymized with Aelurillus leipoldae (Metzner, 1999). Additional distributions of the closely related species Aelurillus v-insignitus are provided for the region of study. Distributional maps are provided for the five species reported in this paper.


Introduction
To date, 69 species and two subspecies of Aelurillus have been described in the world fauna (World Spider Catalog 2015). The genus Aelurillus is distributed predominantly in the Palaearctic Region, with only ten species being recorded from outside its limits. The fauna of the Balkans, Turkey and Azerbaijan consists of 14 species of Aelurillus. The best studied region is Greece containing ten species (Deltshev and Paraschi 1990;Metzner 1999;Azarkina 2002;Dobroruka 2002;Logunov and Chatzaki 2003;Bosmans and Chatzaki 2005;Azarkina and Logunov 2006;Bosmans et al. 2009;Russell-Smith et al. 2011). Four species have been recorded from Macedonia (Komnenov 2002;2003;Fišer and Azarkina 2005), four species from Turkey (Topçu et al. 2005;Danişman et al. 2012;Azarkina and Mirshamsi 2014, Coşar et al. 2014, Logunov 2015, two from Azerbaijan (Logunov and Guseinov 2002) and one from Bulgaria (Deltshev et al. 2001, Lazarov 2005. Four of the 14 species recorded from the region at hand are regional endemics: two species from Crete (A. cretensis Azarkina, 2002 and A. leipoldae (Metzner, 1999)) and two species from Paros Island, Greece (A. guecki Metzner, 1999 andA. steinmetzi Metzner, 1999). Logunov and Chatzaki (2003: 96) proposed A. steliosi as a synonym of A. cretensis "It is safe to assume that this species is a synonym of A. cretensis". Bosmans and Chatzaki 2005 mentioned A. steliosi in reference to A. cretensis, but synonymization was confirmed only in Bosmans et al. 2013 followed by Logunov and Chatzaki 2003. However this synonymization was provided without examination of any type material. In this paper the correct synonymization of A. steliosi with A. leipoldae is established, based on type material. Two new species are also described, Aelurillus deltshevi sp. n. (♂, from Macedonia, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan) and A. alboclypeus sp. n. (♂♀, from Turkey), and a new synonymy of A. steliosi Dobroruka, 2002with A. leipoldae (Metzner, 1999 is proposed to replace an erroneous one (Bosmans et al. 2013).

Material and methods
This paper is based on both museum collections and newly collected material from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Specimens were studied in ethanol and their colours refer to those of the preserved specimens. All drawings were made with the aid of a reticular eyepiece attached to an MBS-10 stereomicroscope. The male pedipalps and epigynes were detached for study. Epigynes were macerated in 20% KOH solution for one night. After being drawn, the copulatory organs were placed in microvials or small pieces of paper with ethanol together with the specimens from which they had been removed. Digital images were taken with a Zeiss Stemi 2000 and an attached Canon EOS 550D camera. Stack images were combined using Helicon Focus software. All drawings were edited and assembled in Adobe Photoshop. Distribution maps were produced using the online mapping software SimpleMappr (Shorthouse 2010) with minor modification.
Specimens for this study were borrowed from or placed in the following museums and personal collections: Abbreviations used in the text: AME -anterior median eyes, ALE -anterior lateral eyes, PLE -posterior lateral eyes, Fm -femur, Pt -patella, TA -terminal apophysis; Tb -tibia, Mt -metatarsus. The sequence of leg segments in measurement data is as follows: femur+patella+tibia+metatarsus+tarsus. All measurements are in mm. For the leg spination the system adopted is that used by Ono (1988 Azarkina 2006), but differs in the male body coloration, viz. A. alboclypeus sp. n. has a black eye field (Fig. 2) and the abdomen with a few white spots. Aelurillus v-insignitus has a V-shaped figure on the eye field and a broad light stripe on dorsum on the abdomen in both the black and grey forms (see Żabka 1997: figs 25, 38), A. laniger Logunov &Marusik, 2000 andA. steinmetzi Metzner, 1999 has a modified V-shaped figure pattern on eye field (see Metzner 1999: fig. 41 a). The clypeus of A. alboclypeus sp. n. is covered with short dense adpressed white hairs (Figs 5,14) while A. v-insignitus has sparse white hairs (Fig. 18). Aelurillus guecki Metzner, 1999 and A. laniger has long shaggy and short yellow-white hairs on clypeus respective and A. steinmetzi has light red hairs. Aelurillus alboclypeus sp. n. has dark brown metatarsi and tarsi of leg I and yellow femora, patellae and tibiae ( Fig. 15) while A. v-insignitus has yellow femora and brown to dark brown patellae, tibiae, metatarsi and tarsi (Fig. 19). Aelurillus guecki has red-brown metatarsi and tarsi of leg I, all legs covered with dark brown hairs. Aelurillus laniger has grey femora of leg I ventrally, femora of other legs are brown-grey ventrally. The TA of the embolic division has a small tooth-like process (Figs 7-10) which absent from both forms of A. v-insignitus (Żabka 1997: figs 31, 42) and other Aelurillus v-insignitus-group species (see Logunov and Marusik 2000: figs 5-6;Metzner 1999: figs 43 f, h-i). Palpal tibial apophysis both straight and slightly curved dorsally, almost adequate in size (Fig. 4) while palpal tibial apophysis of A. laniger both straight, ventral apophysis slightly longer (Logunov and Marusik 2000: fig. 4), ventral palpal tibial apophysis curved ventrally, small and dorsal palpal tibial apophysis long and straight in A. guecki (Metzner 1999: fig. 40 c), palpal tibial apophysis adequate in size, ventral tibial apophysis slightly curved ventrally and dorsal tibial apophysis straight in A. steinmetzi (Metzner 1999: fig. 41 c), palpal tibial apophysis adequate in size, ventral palpal tibial apophysis bended ventrally and dorsal tibial apophysis slightly curved dorsally in A. v-insignitus (Metzner 1999: fig. 42 c). Females differ from those of A. v-insignitusgroup by the poorly visible copulatory openings (Fig. 12).
Distribution. Turkey (Fig. 1). Diagnosis. Aelurillus deltshevi sp. n. belongs to A. v-insignitus-group and is closely related to A. alboclypeus sp. n., A. guecki, A. steinmetzi and A. v-insignitus; it also shares the same colour pattern on the eye field ( Fig. 20) with A. alboclypeus sp. n. (Fig. 2) and A. guecki (Metzner 1999: fig. 40 a), but differs from other species of this group which have "V" sphape (or its modification) on eye field; the clypeal pattern (a narrow stripe of white hairs under anterior median eyes, Fig. 28), differences in size and shape of the lateral tibial apophysis (Fig. 22, cf. Prószyński 1971: see fig. 18 for A. v-insignitus), and in the structure of the embolic division where the embolus and TA are more curved pro-and retro-laterally, and the apical part of TA is simple, without lateral expansions , whereas the apical part of TA of A. v-insignitus is more complicated and laterally expanded, (Metzner 1999: see fig. 43 f), apical part of TA of A. alboclypeus sp. n. with small tooth (Fig. 8), apical part of TA of A. guecki and A. steinmetzi are pointed apically (Metzner 1999: figs. 43 h-i) while apical part of TA of A. deltshevi sp. n. pointed perpendicular to embolus (Fig. 25).

Comments. First author re-examined
Etymology. This species is named after Prof. Christo Deltshev, the well-known Bulgarian arachnologist.
Distribution. Macedonia, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan (Fig. 1). Comments. Aelurillus deltshevi sp. n. occurs in Macedonia and Bulgaria at the elevations below 500 m a.s.l., while A. v-insignitus has been recorded from the elevations above 500 m a.s.l.. (Metzner, 1999)