Aituaria borutzkyi (Reimoser, 1930)

Nadolny, Anton A. & Turbanov, Ilya S., 2025, A review of cave spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) of the Crimean Mountains, with descriptions of two new species, ZooKeys 1230, pp. 37-80 : 37-80

Aituaria borutzkyi (Reimoser, 1930)

Figs 2 B , 15 , 16

Material examined.

• 3 ♀♀ ( TNU 10226 ), Crimea, Bakhchisarai Distr., nr Khodzha-Sala Vil., steep southern slope of Baba-Dagh Plateau (= Mangup-Kale Gorodishche), Mangupskaya I (= MK- 1) Cave , 28. IV. 2017, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 10 ♀♀ ( TNU 10237/1 ), same cave, 3. V. 2018, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 3 ♀♀ ( TNU 10266 ), same cave, 6–8. V. 2017, O. L. Makarova, K. V. Makarov leg. • 1 ♂ ( TNU 10236/1 ), same cave, 11. VI. 2018, I. S. Turbanov, A. A. Nadolny leg. • 1 ♂ 1 ♀ ( TNU 10273 ), same cave, 2. X. 2020, I. S. Turbanov, A. A. Turbanova leg.

Comparative material.

• 1 ♂ ( TNU 10274 ), southern part of Simferopol, indoors ; 27. VI. 2011; A. A. Nadolny leg.

Distribution.

Minor Asia ( Turkey), the west Caucasus (Abkhazia) and Crimea ( Nadolny and Kovblyuk 2007).

Records from the Crimean caves.

Map (Fig. 17 B – black circle). Mangupskaya I Cave on a steep southern slope of Baba-Dagh Plateau (present data).

Ecology.

A troglophile and synanthropic species ( Nadolny and Kovblyuk 2007; Mammola et al. 2018; present data). In Crimea, A. borutzkyi has been found in anthropogenic biotopes of Simferopol and Fersmanovo Vil. ( Nadolny and Kovblyuk 2007, present data). During the present study, it was found only in Mangupskaya I Cave on Baba-Dagh Plateau. On this plateau there was the city of Dori (= Doros), the capital of the medieval late Byzantine Orthodox Principality of Theodoro (13 th – mid- 15 th centuries), where some of currently known caves were used for economic and religious purposes. After the siege and capture of Dori in 1475 by Ottoman troops, the Turkish fortress of Mangup-Kale was built on the plateau and existed there until 1774. In our opinion, under the influence of long-term human activity on Baba-Dagh Plateau, special conditions were created for the colonisation of caves by troglophilous species, which could have been unintentionally introduced to Crimea by active trade between the medieval Principality of Theodoro and / or the Turkish fortress of Mangup-Kale and medieval states of the west Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire ( Herzen and Makhneva-Chernets 2006), the native range of A. borutzkyi lays ( Nadolny and Kovblyuk 2007). Therefore, in Crimea A. borutzkyi seems to be an accidentally introduced facultative synanthrope, locally established in suitable subterranean biotope as a subtroglophile.

Additional diagnostic details.

The complex structure of copulatory organs in Aituaria members has been discussed and illustrated ( Marusik et al. 2017; Fomichev et al. 2022). Here we give SEM micrographs of the male palp of A. borutzkyi to show their details (Fig. 15 A – G ): the paracymbium bears three apophyses, of which the dorsal and distal apophyses are covered with triangular scales (Fig. 15 A, E, F ); the rounded anterior part of subtegulum is prominent in ventral view, the rest of it is hidden behind the tegulum (Fig. 15 A ); the tegulum is discoidal; the radix pear-shaped with a pointed posterior process; the triangular radical apophysis has a scaly surface (Fig. 15 A, C, G ); the conductor consists of three parts: median process with two pointed and one rounded outgrowths, the relatively massive retrolateral process that is bifurcated on its ventral side, and the long, narrow and transparent prolateral process (Fig. 15 B, C ); the connection between embolus and tegulum forms a sharp bend on the anterio-retrolateral side of the bulb (Fig. 15 D ); the embolus with a furrow almost along its entire length (Fig. 15 C, G ). For the female of A. borutzkyi : the epigyne has a rounded edge and is oval, with poorly sclerotised receptacles; the spherical, club-like gland is heavily sclerotised (Fig. 16 A, B ); the copulatory openings situate near the epigynal edge, entering the receptacles laterally (Fig. 16 B ).

A recent review ( Fomichev et al. 2022) considered four species of Aituaria , of which only two have been found in Crimea, including its subterranean habitats: viz., A. borutzkyi and A. pontica . Males of these species are easily separable by the embolic shape: the narrow embolus in A. borutzkyi and wide in A. pontica ; also, all other apophysis differ in their shapes (cf. Fomichev et al. 2022: figs 25, 27). The females differ in detailed structures of the epigyne (cf. Fig. 16 A – C and Marusik et al. 2017: figs 18, 19): A. pontica has a more bended edge of the epigynal plate compared to that in A. borutzkyi ; the stem and head in the club-shaped gland are of equal width in A. pontica , while the head is wider than the stem in A. borutzkyi .

Figures

Figure 2. Spiders in situ in caves of Crimea: A Aituaria pontica, ♀ from abandoned aqueduct carved into an unnamed cave-spring in area of the Maksimova Datsha in the nr Sevastopol B Aituaria borutzkyi, ♀ from Mangupskaya I Cave C, D Metellina merianae, ♀♀ from abandoned aqueduct carved into an unnamed cave-spring in area of the Maksimova Datsha in the nr Sevastopol (С) and Mamut-Tshokrak Cave (D); E, F, G Meta bourneti, ♀ (E) and juv. (G) from from Mangupskaya I Cave, ♂ (F) from Gnomov Cave. Photographs by G. A. Prokopov (A, C); IST (B, D, E, G); AAN (F).

Figure 15. Male palp of Aituaria borutzkyi from Mangupskaya I Cave: A palp, ventral view; B – D bulbus, ventral, anterior, and retrolateral views E, F paracymbium, dorso-retrolateral and ventro-retrolateral views G fragment of embolus with a furrow, prolateral view. Abbreviations: Cm – median process of the conductor, Cp – prolateral process of the conductor, Cr – retrolateral process of the conductor, Eb – embolic base, Em – embolus, Ra – radical apophysis, Rp – radical process, Rx – radix, St – subtegulum, Tg – tegulum. Scale bars: 0.2 mm (A, E); not scaled (B – D, F, G).

Figure 16. Female and male copulatory organs of Aituaria borutzkyi from Mangupskaya I Cave: A, B epigyne, ventral and dorsal views C club-like gland, dorsal view D male palp, ventral view. Abbreviations: Cd – copulatory duct, Cm – median process of the conductor, Cp – prolateral process of the conductor, Cr – retrolateral process of the conductor, Em – embolus, Gl – club-like gland, Pa – paracymbium, Ra – radical apophysis, Re – receptacle, Rp – radical process, Rx – radix, St – subtegulum. Scale bars: 0.2 mm (A, B, D); not scaled (C).

Figure 17. Distributions of cave-dwelling spiders in Crimea (including data from references and this work): A Tegenaria lapicidinarum (purple circle), T. parietina (blue circle), T. taurica (orange circle), Amaurobius erberi (yellow circle), Alopecosa farinosa (grey circle), Pholcus phalangioides (pink circle), Meta bourneti (red circle), Metellina segmentata (pale blue circle), M. merianae (green circle), Steatoda triangulosa (white circle) B Bisetifer gruzin (blue circle), B. tactus sp. nov. (purple circle), Caviphantes dobrogicus (green circle), Lepthyphantes leprosus (red circle), Megalepthyphantes nebulosus (pale blue circle), M. pseudocollinus (white circle), Palliduphantes khobarum (orange circle), ? Tenuiphantes zimmermanni (pink circle), Troglohyphantes exspectatus sp. nov. (yellow circle), Aituaria pontica (grey circle), A. borutzkyi (black circle). The numbering of the caves is common for both maps: 1 – in unnamed cave near the city of Bakhchisarai; 2 – Mangupskaya I (= MK- 1) Cave; 3 – abandoned aqueduct carved into an unnamed cave-spring in area of the Maksimova Datsha; 4 – Asketi I Cave; 5 – Kay-Kobasy Cave; 6 – Izumrudnaya Сave; 7 – Gekkonovaya Cave; 8 – Gnomov Cave; 9 – Tshernoretshenskaya Cave; 10 – Azis-Koba (= Kara-Koba) Cave; 11 – Mamut-Tshokrak Cave; 12 – Baidar-Tshokrak Cave; 13 – unnamed cave on northeastern slope of Mt. Kilse-Burun; 14 – Skelskaya Cave; 15 – Rodnikovskaya Cave; 16 – Koryta (= Kuznetsova) Cave; 17 – Zemlyanitshnaya Cave; 18 – Kristalnaya (= Maksimovitcha) Cave; 19 – Druzhba Cave; 20 – unnamed cave (= ? Malaya Cave) in Nizhnie Limeny (now Goluboi Zaliv); 21 – Daniltsha-Koba Cave; 22 – Ayu-Teshik Cave; 23 – Villyaburunskaya Cave; 24 – Troizkogo (= Kharkovskaya, ZUG) Сave; 25 – Avantyura Cave; 26 – Kaply-Kayanskaya (= Khaplu-Khoba) Cave; 27 – Ayu-Koba Cave; 28 – grotto in Massandra; 29 – Binbash-Koba Cave; 30 – Paskhalnaya Cave; 31 – Alushtinskaya Cave; 32 – Kizil-Koba (= Krasnaya) Cave; 33 – Sliyanie Cave; 34 – Vostotshny Potok Cave; 35 – Partizanskaya Cave; 36 – grotto on Mt. Yuznaya Demerdzhi; 37 – Tisovaya Cave; 38 – Karani-Koba Cave; 39 – Tuakskaya (= Ful-Koba) Cave; 40 – Tavrida Cave.