Four new species of the jumping spider genus Portia (Araneae, Salticidae) from China

Abstract We diagnose and describe four new species of Portia Karsch, 1878 and describe for the first time the male of P.zhaoi Peng, Li & Chen, 2003 from China based on morphological characters. The females of Portiabawang sp. nov. have the narrowest epigyne orifice. The males of Portiaerlangping sp. nov. have the shortest embolus among all the species. The females of Portiafajing sp. nov. can be distinguished from other species by the anterior orifice margin, which is nearly parallel to the posterior orifice margin. The males of Portiaxishan sp. nov. can be identified by the tegular furrow which extends to form a membrane and by the tegular apophysis which is obscured; the females of Portiaxishan sp. nov. can be diagnosed by the slit-like epigynal orifice. The males of P.zhaoi have the longest embolus among all the species, and females can be diagnosed by the circular epigyne orifice and the longest copulatory ducts. To facilitate future identification, we also provide the GenBank accession codes of the DNA barcode gene, Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), for all the type specimens.


Introduction
Portia Karsch, 1878 is the most thoroughly studied jumping spider genus and one of the best-known model systems for behavioural and evolutionary research in spiders (Su et al. 2007;Harland et al. 2012). Unlike typical jumping spiders, species of Portia are both cursorial predators and web builders. They build large, three-dimensional prey-catch webs (Jackson 1985). They also prey on other spiders by invading their webs and using aggressive mimicry to trick, then catch the resident spider. In addition, Portia species also eat insects ensnared in the alien web. Furthermore, all species of Portia show specialized prey-catching behaviour for a particular type of prey and have a preference for spiders as prey over insects (reviewed by Jackson and Pollard 1996;Li and Jackson 1996;Harland et al. 2012).
Portia was erected based on the female morphology of Portia schultzi Karsch, 1878(Karsch 1878. A taxonomic revision of the whole genus was completed by Wanless (1978). The monophyly of Portia is now strongly supported by both molecular and morphological data (Su et al. 2007;Maddison et al. 2014;Maddison 2015). Portia belongs to the subfamily Spartaeinae, tribe Spartaeini, subtribe Spartaeina (Maddison 2015). Portia is sister to Cyrba Simon, 1986and Paracyrba Zabka & Kovac, 1996(Su et al. 2007Maddison 2014). To date, the genus contains 17 species worldwide, mainly distributed in the Oriental and Ethiopian regions, and specifically, 10 out of 17 Portia species occur in China (Wanless 1978;World Spider Catalog 2021). Peng and Li (2002) reported a taxonomic review of Chinese Portia species. The key to species of Portia was provided in the studies of Wanless (1978) and Peng and Li (2002) based on male and female genital morphology. Since Peng et al. (2003), only one new species of Portia has been reported from Taiwan (Zhang and Li 2005;World Spider Catalog 2021). In this study, after examining the vouchers collected in China, we identify and describe four new species of Portia and describe the male of P. zhaoi for the first time based on male and/or female genital morphology.

Materials and methods
All specimens were collected from China ( Fig. 1). We removed the right four legs of adults for molecular work, preserved them in 100% ethanol, and kept them at -80 °C. We preserved the remains of each specimen in 80% ethanol as a voucher for morphological examination. All voucher specimens are deposited at the College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
We examined and dissected the specimens under an Olympus SZ51 stereomicroscope. The soft tissues of female genitalia were degraded using 10 mg/ml trypsase (Bomei Biotech Company, Hefei, Anhui, China) for at least 3 h at room temperature. Male and female genitalia were photographed with a digital camera CCD mounted on an Olympus BX53 compound microscope, and then generated compound focused images with Helicon Focus v. 6.7.1. All measurements were made using a digital camera MC170HD mounted on a Leica M205C stereomicroscope and are given in millimeters. Leg and palp measurements are given in the following order: leg total length (femur + patella + tibia + metatarsus + tarsus), palp total length (femur + patella + tibia + tarsus).

Genus Portia Karsch, 1878
Type species. Portia schultzi Karsch, 1878 Diagnosis. The genus Portia can be distinguished from other genera of the subfamily Spartaeinae by the dorsum of the abdomen with distinct tufts, the ventral tibiae with long fan-like fringes, and the malp palp with a dorsal cymbium flange (Zhang and Li 2005).   Diagnosis. Females of P. bawang sp. nov. resemble those of P. fimbriata, P. quei, and P. taiwanica but can be distiguished from them by the epigyne orifice being narrowest ( Fig. 2C; for comarison with known species, see fig. 8 in Wanless (1978), figs 664 and 666 in Peng et al. (1993), and fig. 4F in Zhang and Li (2005), respecitively); from those of P. labiata by the slightly straight anterior margin of posterior depression (  Zhu et al. (2007)); from those of P. heteroidea by lacking a median septum ( Fig. 2C; see figs 10-12 in Xie and Yin (1991)); from those of P. fajing sp. nov. and P. xishan sp. nov. by the epigyne orifice being narrowest and elliptical (Fig. 2C); from those of P. zhaoi by a smaller elliptical epigyne orifice and a shorter copulatory duct (Fig. 2C, D).
Description. Female (holotype; Fig. 2A, B). Carapace greyish brown; ocular area yellow brown, with tufts of orange brown hairs around AME. Clypeus brown with dense ventral white hairs. Chelicerae dark brown with 3 small promarginal and 3 large retro-  . Leg formula 4123. Legs slender, ventral portion of tibiae fringed with long black hairs. Dorsum of abdomen black brown, anterior portion light brown with grey-white hairs, middle portion with a small patch and posterior portion with two oval patches, the three patches densely covered with greyish long hairs.
Etymology. The species epithet, a noun in apposition, refers to the type locality.  Description. Female (holotype). Carapace brown; ocular area yellow-brown, with tufts of orange-brown hairs around AME. Clypeus brown with dense ventral white hairs. Chelicerae dark brown with 3 small promarginal and 3 large retromarginal teeth. Maxillae and labium reddish brown with yellow-brown anterior margin. Sternum yellow-brown, densely covered with creamy white hairs. Measurements: eye sizes: AME 0.68, ALE 0.30, PME 0. Legs brown, the ventral portion of tibiae fringed with long black hairs. Dorsum of abdomen greyish brown, posterior portion with two circular patches densely covered with grey-white long hairs.
Etymology. The species epithet, a noun in apposition, refers to the type locality.
Description. Male (Holotype). Carapace black-brown with white band on thoracic groove and lateral margin. Ocular area yellow-brown, with tufts of yellow-brown hairs around AME. Clypeus black-brown without dense ventral white hairs. Chelicerae dark brown with 5 small promarginal and 2 large retromarginal teeth. Maxillae and labium black-brown with yellow-brown anterior margin. Sternum yellow-brown, densely covered with creamy white hairs. Measurements: eye sizes: AME 0.59, ALE 0.30, PME 0. leg IV 9.85 (2.61 + 0.92 + 2.09 + 3.17 + 1.06). Leg formula 4123. Legs black-brown, slender, the ventral portion of tibiae fringed with long black hairs. Dorsum of abdomen greyish brown, anterior portion light brown with grey-white hairs, three pairs of oval patches densely covered with grey-white hairs, the posterior pair largest.
Palp. Tibia with 3 apophyses, ventral one thick and short, intermediate one relatively slender, retrolateral one largest and bar-shaped in dorsal view (Fig. 5A-D). Embolus short and stout, with a spinule basally in retrolateral view (Fig. 5A-C). Seminal duct clear and S-shaped. Tegulum with a curved furrow extending a membranous apophysis ventrally and an obscure tegular apophysis (Fig. 5A-C). Cymbium flange robust, terminal portion close to middle portion of retrolateral tibial apophysis dorsally (Fig. 5D).
Etymology. The species epithet, a noun in apposition, "xishan" means Western Mountains in Chinese and refers to the type locality.