Research Article |
Corresponding author: Yang Zhu ( zhu@hubu.edu.cn ) Academic editor: Shuqiang Li
© 2022 Fengjie Liu, Ingi Agnarsson, Jie Liu, Yang Zhu.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Liu F, Agnarsson I, Liu J, Zhu Y (2022) Description and phylogenetic analysis of two new Episinus (Aranea, Theridiidae) species from China. ZooKeys 1125: 33-46. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1125.90212
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The spider genus Episinus Walckenaer, 1809 currently contains 66 species worldwide, mostly in warm temperate to tropical areas. This paper describes two new Chinese Episinus species: E. ornithorrhynchus sp. nov. (♂♀) and E. papilionaceous sp. nov. (♀). We add these two new and one known Episinus species to the phylogenetic data matrix of
New species, phylogenetic, taxonomy
Currently, the Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833, constitutes one of the largest families of spider, with 2539 described species in 125 genera distributed worldwide. In China, there are 380 species of Theridiidae, and they belong to 54 genera (
At present, the genus Episinus has 66 described species and of which only 10 have been reported in China (
We describe herein two new Episinus species from China, E. ornithorrhynchus sp. nov. and E. papilionaceous sp. nov. We add these species, as well as E. nubilus Yaginuma, 1960, to the data matrix of
All specimens were kept in absolute ethanol and examined with an Olympus SZX7 stereomicroscope; details were further investigated with an Olympus BX51 compound microscope. Male palps and female genitalia were examined and photographed after dissection from the spider bodies, epigynes were cleared with Proteinase K, and palps were studied after immersion in KOH; habitus photos were obtained using a Leica 205C digital microscope. Left palps are illustrated. All specimens are deposited at the Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution, College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China (CBEE).
Leg measurements are shown as total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). The number of spines is listed for each segment in the following order: prolateral, dorsal, retrolateral, and ventral (in femora and patellae ventral spines are absent, and the fourth digit is omitted in the spination formula). The terminology used in the text, figure legends, and palp homologies follow
We used the dataset from
The appropriate models for the Bayesian analysis were selected with jModelTest2 on XSEDE (2.1.6) (
ALE—anterior lateral eyes, AME—anterior median eyes, Atr—atrium, C—conductor, CD—copulatory duct, CY—cymbium, E—embolus, FD—fertilization duct, MA—median apophysis, MS—medium septum, PLE—posterior lateral eyes, PME—posterior median eyes, I–IV—1st to 4th leg, S—spermathecae, Teg—tegulum, CBEE—Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution, College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China.
Family Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833
Episinus truncates Latreille, 1809.
Holotype : ♂, China, Yunnan Province: Mengsong Town, Mengsong Township Central Primary School, (22°4'12"N, 100°33'36"E, 1340 m alt.), 1 August 2020, Z.C. Li, R. Zhong, W.Z. Deng, W. Zhang, and Y.T. Zhang leg. Paratypes: 1♂2♀, same data as holotype; Yunnan Province: 2♀, Menglun Town, Baka Xiaozhai, (22°4'12"N, 101°12'0"E, 810 m alt.), 24 July 2020, Z.C. Li, R. Zhong, W.Z. Deng, W. Zhang, and Y.T. Zhang leg.
Males are similar to E. baoshanensis
The specific name is derived from the Latin adjective ornithorrhynchus, meaning bird’s beak, referring to the shape of the conductor; adjective.
Male (paratype): total length 3.79; prosoma length 1.60, width 1.39; opisthosoma length 2.19, width 1.67; eye diameters: ALE 0.10, AME 0.10, PLE 0.10, PME 0.10; eye interdistances: AME–AME 0.10, AME–ALE 0.05, PME–PME 0.10, PME–PLE 0.05; clypeus height 0.24; leg measurements: I 6.84 (1.83, 0.41, 2.11, 1.78, 0.71), II 5.04 (1.46, 0.39, 1.14, 1.35, 0.70), III 3.72 (1.11, 0.35, 0.73, 0.96, 0.57), IV 7.76 (2.28, 0.52, 1.70, 2.40, 0.86). Leg formula: IV, I, II, III. Overall, the color was slightly lighter and as in females (Fig.
Palp (Figs
Female (holotype): total length 4.25; prosoma length 1.70, width 1.49; opisthosoma length 2.55, width 2.05; eye diameters: ALE 0.10, AME 0.10, PLE 0.10, PME 0.10; eyes interdistances: AME–AME 0.10, AME–ALE 0.06, PME–PME 0.08, PME–PLE 0.08; clypeus height 0.25; leg measurements: I 7.44 (2.05, 0.61, 1.79, 2.23, 0.76), II 5.06 (1.52, 0.50, 1.06, 1.30, 0.68), III 3.91 (1.28, 0.33, 0.68, 0.93, 0.69), IV 8.25 (2.36, 0.80, 1.65, 2.46, 0.98). Leg formula: IV, I, II, III. Carapace yellowish to reddish brown, with a deep transverse depression. Sternum gray-black, slightly longer than wide. Femur and tibia to tarsus yellowish white, and distal patella reddish brown (Fig.
Epigyna (Fig.
Total length male 3.75–3.79 (n = 2), female 4.10–4.25 (n = 4).
China (Yunnan Province) (Fig.
Holotype : ♀, CHINA, Hunan Province: Zhangjiajie City, Badagong Mountain National Nature Reserve (29°47'24"N, 110°6'0"E, 1395 m alt.), 2 June 2018, F.X. Liu and Z.C. Li leg.
This new species is similar to E. xiushanicus Zhu, 1998 in having a peach-shaped structure at the posterior part of the epigynal field but can be distinguished from them by the following characteristics: 1) abdomen without spinous process in ventral view, but the ventral protuberance is spinous in E. xiushanicus (Fig.
The specific name is derived from the Latin adjective papilionaceous, meaning butterfly-shaped, referring to the shape of the epigynum; adjective.
Male unknown. Female (holotype): total length 4.29. Prosoma length 1.55, width 1.44; opisthosoma length 2.74, width 2.55; eye diameters: ALE 0.11, AME 0.11, PLE 0.09, PME 0.09; eye interdistances: AME–AME 0.10, AME–ALE 0.05, PME–PME 0.15, PME–PLE 0.08; clypeus height 0.50; leg measurements: I 8.00 (2.48, 0.61, 1.83, 2.47, 0.61), II 5.46 (1.78, 0.41, 1.17, 1.42, 0.68), III 4.77 (1.43, 0.34, 0.76, 1.83, 0.41), IV 8.57 (2.75, 0.69, 2.09, 2.34, 0.70). Leg formula: IV, I, II, III. Carapace yellowish brown, with two parallel elongate yellowish-white markings posterior to eyes, and submarginal black markings laterally. Posterior median eyes slightly mound-shaped and surrounding area black. Sternum grayish yellow, slightly longer than wide. Legs yellow, with brown markings. Opisthosoma yellowish black, with irregular black stripes in ventral view and extending posteriorly. Opisthosoma dorsally yellowish black, with tiny white to black dots (Fig.
Epigyna (Fig.
Our phylogeny tree supports the fundamental findings of prior studies, the monophyly of Theridiidae and seven subfamilies of Theridiidae: Latrodectinae, Pholcommatinae, Argyrodinae, Hadrotarsinae, Spintharinae, Anelosiminae, and Theridiinae.
From the results (Fig.
Bayesian analysis of molecular and morphological data of the focal dataset, a matrix excluding all taxa with over 70% missing data. Numbers on nodes are posterior probabilities; bootstrap support from ML analyses is indicated: solid stars indicate bootstrap support values >95%, the gray stars > 50–95%, and nodes with less than 50% support lack stars.
Our results strongly support the monophyly of the subfamily Spintharinae. We have also found compelling evidence to support the monophyly of the genus Episinus, although this is weak due to the lack of data for the most-related genera: Janula, Neopisinus, and Brunepisinus. Regardless, we found evidence for the first time for the division of the genus Episinus into two groups. The “angulatus” group to which E. ornithorrhynchus sp. nov., belongs is characterized by the male embolus, and the “nubilus” group to which E. papilionaceous sp. nov. belongs is characterized by female atria. These two groups can be clearly diagnosed based on the following morphological traits: in the “angulatus” group, the male embolus originates at the center of the palp and is close to the cymbium; in the “nubilus” group, female atria are separated by a medium septum. Episinus nubilus Yaginuma, 1960, here newly added to the phylogenetic matrix, was found to be closely related to E. ornithorrhynchus sp. nov. Our findings suggest that the genus Moneta O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1871 which is morphologically similar to Episinus, is unrelated to it, but instead related to the genus Stemmops O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1894. The genus Thwaitesia O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1881 was recovered as sister to Epsisnus, with strong support (Bayesian PP 97.4%, ML bootstrap 95%). This is similar to the morphological phylogeny of
Based on the combination of molecular and morphological data, our knowledge of the phylogeny of Theridiidae is rapidly growing (
Our results also have implications for the broader phylogeny of Theridiidae in as much as they differ from
Our study focuses mainly on the subfamily Spintharinae and confirmed its monophyly. The genera Spintharus, Thwaitesia, and Episinus all tend to build an H-shaped web with the animal facing downwards and holding onto parts of the web with its feet, presumably specializing on pedestrian prey such as ants (
We found support for the monophyly of Episinus and its division into two morphologically well-defined branches. The “angulatus” group includes E. angulatus (Blackwall, 1836), E. papilionaceous sp. nov., and E. affinis Bösenberg & Strand, 1906. This group differs from the “nubilus” group, which includes E. nubilus Yaginuma, 1960 and E. ornithorrhynchus sp. nov., in the origin of the male embolus and the ventral view of female epigynal. The “angulatus” group can be characterized by the male embolus originating closer to the cymbium at the lateral edge of the palp, whereas in the “nubilus” group the embolus arises in clockwise direction upward bending in the middle of the palp. The “angulatus” group presents only one large atrium in the ventral view of the female epigynal, but the “nubilus” group has two atria separated by the medium septum. The medium septum is a projection in the middle of the atrium and has a guiding function (
This research was funded by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC‐31970406/31772420/31573236) and National Science & Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China (grant no. 2019FY101800).
Table S1
Data type: Genomic.
Explanation note: Phylogenetic analysis of the spider genus Episinus (Araneae: Theridiidae) and description of the two new species from China.