Baalzebub albonotatus (Petrunkevitch, 1930)

Figs 1, 58

Theridiosoma albonotatum Petrunkevitch, 1930: 305, figs 177–179 [♀]

[holotype ♀ from Puerto Rico, Rio Grande, El Yunque National Forest (Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven), not examined].

Baalzebub albonotatus – Coddington 1986: 74, figs 163–164, 167 [♂, ♀] [transferred from Theridiosoma].

Diagnosis

Males and females of B. albonotatus can be distinguished from the other congeneric species by the longitudinal guanine blotches silver band centrally on the dorsum of the opisthosoma (Fig. 58A–C; Petrunkevitch 1930: fig. 178) (absent in other cogeneric species).

Material examined

PANAMA – Chiriquí Province • 1 ♂; Reserva Forestal Fortuna, Sendero Zamudio; 8.732861° N, 82.284667° W; 1360 m a.s.l.; 20 Jun. 2008; L. Piacentini and F. Labarque leg.; non-quantitative sample; voucher code SFNQK8L001; preparation codes FML-00835, FML-00836; DNA barcode SPIPA232-10; MACN-Ar.

Description

Male (MACN-Ar SFNQK8L001)

Total length 1.11. Prosoma: length 0.51, width 0.45, height 0.48. Sternum: length 0.27, width 0.31. Eye diameters and interdistances: AME 0.06, PME 0.05, AME–PME 0.05. Opisthosoma: length 0.64, width 0.69, height 0.77. Leg formula: 1243. Dorsal shield of prosoma yellow, thoracic area olive-green centrally (Fig. 58A–B). Dorsum of ocular area dark (Fig. 58A–B). Sternum yellowish-orange (Fig. 58C). Opisthosoma color overall olive-green, with dorsal longitudinal guanine blotches silver band centrally (Fig. 58A–C). Epiandrium, tracheal spiracle, and spinneret field dark olive-green, and booklung cover whitish-gray (Fig. 58C). Femora yellowish-white but distally olive-green, patella olive-green, tibiae and metatarsi orange, and tarsi brownish-orange (Fig. 58A–C). Palp: paracymbium hooked, paracymbial process with setae row, median apophysis with deep trough, conductor covering embolic division, embolus laminated, multiple divided embolic apophysis (Fig. 58D–F; Coddington 1986: figs 163–164).

Female

For female species description, see Petrunkevitch (1930).

Records and biology

Baalzebub albonotatus has been found in Puerto Rico (World Spider Catalog 2025) and Panama. Records in this study are limited to collections made at 1135 m a.s.l. in premontane rainforest from Reserva Forestal Fortuna (Fig. 1).

Remarks

Whereas we have not examined the type of this species, we believe that species attribution is unproblematic. Coddington (1986: 72–74) examined male and female specimens of Baalzebub albonotatus from Puerto Rico (misspelled as “ B. albinotatus ”), provided SEM images of the male palp of this species (Coddington 1986: figs 163–164), and distinguished it from Baalzebub baubo by “a median dorsal white stripe on the abdomen” (Coddington 1986: 74). Unfortunately, Coddington (1986) did not describe the male of B. albonotatus; however, we have done so here (see Description above). Our diagnosis aligns perfectly with the female description of B. albonotatus by Petrunkevitch (1930: 305) and the comparative diagnosis with B. baubo by Coddington (1986: 74). Additionally, our description of the male palp of B. albonotatus agrees in every way with the specimen illustrated by Coddington (1986).