Thelcticopis lini sp. nov.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: HNJFL- 18-09; recordedBy: Yejie Lin, Jiaxiang Wu & Rixin Jiang; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Location: continent: Asia; country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Hainan Province; county: Ledong Li Autonomous County; verbatimLocality: Hainan Jianfengling National Forest Park, Mingfenggu; verbatimElevation: 989 m; verbatimLatitude: 18°44’30”N; verbatimLongitude: 108°50’30”E; Event: year: 2018; month: 4; day: 20

Description

Male: Total length 13.9, carapace 7.1 length, 6.2 width, anterior width of carapace 3.4, opisthosoma 7.0 length, 4.6 width. Eyes AME 0.37, ALE 0.25, PME 0.22, PLE 0.26, AME – AME 0.28, AME – ALE 0.28, PME – PME 0.62, PME – PLE 0.69, AME – PME 0.24, ALE – PLE 0.24, clypeus height of AME 0.23, clypeus height of ALE 0.22. Spination: Palp: 131, 101, 3060; Fe: I – II 323, III – IV 321; Pa: I – IV 000; Ti: I – II 212 (10), III – IV 2126; Mt: I – II 2022, III 3032, IV 3034. Measurements of palp and legs: Palp 7.2 (2.3, 1.0, 1.3, –, 2.6), I 23, 7 (6.2, 2.6, 7.4, 5.8, 1.7), II 23.3 (6.9, 2.7, 6.7, 5.4, 1.6), III 18.4 (5.6, 2.3, 4.7, 4.2, 1.6), IV 23.1 (6.9, 2.2, 5.8, 6.3, 1.9). Leg formula: I-II-IV-III. Chelicerae with three anterior and five to six posterior teeth.

Palp as in diagnosis. Tibia almost as long as wide. Retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA) strongly curved, with irregular-shaped tip; bunch of six to seven setae arising from basal part and one strong seta arising from distal part and elongate ventrally (intersects the margin of retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA), see Fig. 7 E). Cymbium almost twice longer than tibia. Spermophor (Sp) oval in ventral view. Tegular apophysis (TA) straight in retrolateral view, originating from a membrane. Distal conductor (C) rectangular in lateral view. Embolus (E) curved, arising from tegulum at 10 o’clock position, with a lamellar embolic apophysis (EA) on basal embolus (E) (Fig. 7).

Carapace reddish-brown, with golden hairs. Chelicerae brown, with brown hairs. Sternum reddish-brown, with brown margin. Endites and labium brown with yellow distal part. Legs brown to yellowish-brown, with golden hairs. Opisthosoma brown, dorsum with dark yellow markings, venter with some yellow longitudinal lines. Spinnerets orange (Fig. 8 E and F).

Female: unknown.

Diagnosis

Males of Thelcticopis lini sp. nov. are similar to those of T. severa (L. Koch, 1875) (cf. Fig. 7 and figs. 2 A ‒ D in Zhu et al. (2020)) and T. bicornuta Pocock, 1901 (cf. Fig. 7 and figs. 4 E, F, 5 A and B in Sankaran et al. (2024)) in having a bunch of strong setae arising from basal retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA), one strong seta arising from distal retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA), the tegular apophysis (TA) originating from a membrane and the curved embolus (E) with a lamellar embolic apophysis (EA), but can be distinguished by: 1. The tip of retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA) irregular-shaped, with three peaks (vs. rounded in T. severa and T. bicornuta); 2. Tegular apophysis (TA) straight in retrolateral view (vs. hook-shaped in T. severa and T. bicornuta); and 3. Embolic apophysis (EA) almost four fifths of the length of embolus (E) in ventral view (vs. almost two thirds in T. severa and T. bicornuta).

Etymology

This new species is named after Mr. Yejie Lin (Imperial College London, United Kingdom), who made significant contribution to the taxonomy of spiders.

Distribution

Known only from the type locality (Fig. 9).