Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 3135 No. 1: 19 Dec. 2011
Type: Articles
Published: 2011-12-19
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3135.1.4
Page range: 59–62
Abstract views: 33
PDF downloaded: 1

A new troglomorphic Metagonia Simon 1893 (Araneae, Pholcidae) from Brazil

Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brazil, 1500, 05503-900 Butantã, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo
Laboratório de Ecologia Subterrânea, Setor de Zoologia, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Minais Gerais. CEP 37200-000, Brazil
Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brazil, 1500, 05503-900 Butantã, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Araneae Pholcidae

Abstract

The genus Metagonia Simon 1893 currently has 81 species widely distributed in South and Central America (Platnick, 2011). The majority of species are leaf-dwellers (Gertsch 1986; Huber 1997; 2004; Huber & Schütte 2009) but some inhabit leaf-litter (Huber et al. 2005) or live in caves (Gertsch 1986; Gertsch & Peck 1992; Huber 1998; Pérez González & Huber 1999). Three species were described from cave environments as eyeless troglobites: M. bellavista Gertsch & Peck 1992 and M. reederi Gertsch & Peck 1992 from the Galapagos Islands and M. debrasi Pérez González & Huber 1999 from Cuba. These species may be local relicts from extinct groups (Gertsch & Peck 1992, Pérez González & Huber 1999). Huber (2000) placed these eyeless species in his ‘group 4’.

References

  1. Gertsch, W.J. (1986) The spider genus Metagonia (Araneae: Pholcidae) in North America, Central America, and the West Indies. Texas Memorial Museum, Speleological Monographs, 1, 39–62.

    Gertsch, W.J. & Peck, S.B. (1992) The pholcid spiders of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador (Araneae, Pholcidae). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 70, 1185–1199.

    Huber, B.A. (1997) On American ‘Micromerys’ and Metagonia (Araneae, Pholcidae), with notes on natural history and genital mechanics. Zoologica Scripta, 25, 341–363.

    Huber, BA. (1998) Report of some pholcid spiders collected in Guatemala and Honduras (Araneae, Pholcidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie, 105, 49–80.

    Huber, B.A. (2000) New world pholcid spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae): a revision at generic level. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 254, 1–348.

    Huber, B.A. (2004) Evidence for functional segregation in the directionally asymmetric male genitalia of the spider Metagonia mariguitarensis (Gonzalez-Sponga) (Pholcidae: Araneae). Journal of Zoology, 262, 317–326.

    Huber, B.A., Rheims, C.A. & Brescovit, A.D. (2005) Two new species of litter-dwelling Metagonia spiders (Araneae, Pholcidae) document both rapid and slow genital evolution. Acta Zoologica, 86, 33–40.

    Huber, B.A. & Schütte, A. (2009) Preliminary notes on leaf-dwelling Metagonia spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae) in the Esquinas Rainforest near La Gamba, Costa Rica: leaf preference, mimesis, and web structure. Contributions to Natural History Bern, 12, 681–697.

    Levi, H.W. (1965) Techniques for the study of spider genitalia. Psyche 72, 152–158.

    Pérez-González, A. & Huber, B.A. (1999) Metagonia debrasi n. sp., the first species of the genus Metagonia Simon in Cuba (Pholcidae, Araneae). Revue Arachnologique, 13, 69–72.

    Platnick, N.I. (2011) The world spider catalog, version 11.5. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/iz/spiders/catalog/ (accessed 17 June 2011).

    Rizzini, C.T. (1997) Tratado de fitogeografia do Brasil. 2 ed. Âmbito Cultural Edições Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, 747 p.