Smeringopina essotah new species

Figs. 7, 633–637, 680–681, 695, 738–743

Type. ♂ holotype from Cameroon, Southwest Region, near Dschang, Essotah (5°25.5’N, 9°54.7’E), 1600 m a.s.l., near ground, under and among rocks, 21.iv.2009 (B.A. Huber), in ZFMK (Ar 10289).

Other material examined. CAMEROON: Southwest Region: near Dschang, Essotah, same data as holotype, 3♂ 14♀ in ZFMK (Ar 10290); same data, 6 juvs. in pure ethanol, in ZFMK (Cam 97).

Etymology. The name is a noun in apposition, derived from the type locality.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from similar congeners (large species with long abdomen, cone-shaped modified hairs on male chelicerae, embolus with sclerotized proximal part) by combination of unmodified clypeus, shape of massive procursus (distinctive distal elements, Figs. 738–739) and median projection on epigynum (Fig. 681; similar S. africana whose epigynum is very different in ventral view, compare Figs. 519 and 680).

Male (holotype). Total body length 7.8, carapace width 2.0. Leg 1: 85.9 (19.7 + 0.8 + 19.2 + 42.1 + 4.1), tibia 2: 13.3, tibia 3: 9.5, tibia 4: 12.1; tibia 1 L/d: 99. Distance PME-PME 210 µm, diameter PME 175 µm, distance PME-ALE 90 µm, distance AME-AME 45 µm, diameter AME 160 µm. Carapace ochre-yellow with brown mark posteriorly and brown lateral margins; ocular area brown, clypeus with pair of dark marks laterally, sternum dark brown; legs ochre-yellow, dark rings subdistally on femora and tibiae and in patella area, tips of femora and tibiae whitish; abdomen ochre-gray with distinct black pattern dorsally, laterally, and ventrally. Habitus as in Figs. 633– 634, ocular area slightly elevated, secondary eyes with distinct ‘pseudo-lenses’; clypeus unmodified except slightly longer hairs; deep thoracic pit and pair of shallow furrows diverging behind pit. Chelicerae as in Fig. 740, with lateral proximal apophyses and large distal apophyses, the latter and frontal cheliceral face provided with modified (cone-shaped) hairs. Palps as in Figs. 635–637; coxa unmodified; trochanter with simple retrolatero-ventral apophysis; femur proximally with ventral pocket bordered retrolaterally by strong sclerotized ridge (Fig. 637), with very tiny retrolateral apophysis, without prolateral modification; prolateral femur-patella joint very prominent and strongly shifted toward ventrally; tarsus with some stronger hairs dorsally; procursus with distinct hinge between proximal and distal part, complex distally (Figs. 738–739); bulb with widened and heavily sclerotized proximal part of embolus (Fig. 741). Legs without spines and curved hairs, with few vertical hairs, retrolateral trichobothrium on tibia 1 at 1.5%; prolateral trichobothrium present on all tibiae; pseudosegments barely visible.

Variation. Tibia 1 in 3 other males: 16.9, 17.9, 18.7.

Female. In general similar to male but clypeus often darker; clypeus with shorter hairs. Tibia 1 in 12 females: 12.8–15.1 (mean 14.0); light median posterior line ventrally on abdomen variably distinct. Epigynum large, consisting of wide, roughly triangular anterior plate with median projection and large posterior plate (Figs. 680– 681, 742); internal genitalia as in Figs. 695 and 743 (pore plates hidden in deep folds behind lateral sclerites).

Natural history. S. essotah was collected from large webs built under and among huge rocks in a well preserved forest. When disturbed, the spiders swiftly ran to the rock wall where they were barely visible among the mosses.

Distribution. Known from type locality only (Fig. 627).