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Type: Article
Published: 2021-08-11
Page range: 1-30
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New species of the pirate spider genus Mimetus Hentz, 1832 from China with a cladistic hypothesis on their phylogenetic placement (Araneae, Mimetidae)

State Key Laboratory of Developmental Biology of Freshwater Fish, The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China
State Key Laboratory of Developmental Biology of Freshwater Fish, The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China
Department of Biological Sciences, The George Washington University, DC 20052, USA
State Key Laboratory of Developmental Biology of Freshwater Fish, The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China
Araneae taxonomy pirate spider morphology phylogeny

Abstract

Five new species of mimetid spiders from China are described: Mimetus subulatus n. sp., M. clavatus n. sp., M. dentatus n. sp., M. niveosignatus n. sp. and M. uncatus n. sp. The phylogenetic placement of these new species is inferred based on a cladistic analysis of an expanded version of the morphological dataset of Benavides and Hormiga (2020). The new species form a clade that can be distinguished from other Mimetus species by the presence of a subtegular apophysis between paracymbium and subtegulum, pilose cuticular projections on the membranous part of the conductor in the male palp and by a bicameral structure of the spermathecae in females. The new species are part of a clade that includes Mimetus syllepsicus Hentz, 1832, the type species of the genus. The genus Mimetus as currently circumscribed is not monophyletic, as the clade that includes all the Mimetus species also includes the genera Australomimetus Heimer, 1986 and Anansi Benavides and Hormiga, 2017, corroborating the results of Benavides and Hormiga (2020).

 

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