On Levymanus, a remarkable new spider genus from Israel, with notes on the Chediminae (Araneae, Palpimanidae)

By

Zonstein, Sergei L.
Marusik, Yuri M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2013

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

326

Pages

27-45

Subjects

Near East , new taxa , Palearctic , South-Western Asia , Spiders , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.326.5344

 

Abstract

Levymanus gershomi gen. n. et sp. n., is described from southern Israel. The eye arrangement and structure of the male palp indicate that this genus belongs to Chediminae Simon, 1893. Levymanus gen. n. differs from other chedimine genera by its unusually long and slender legs, an elongate body, a unique shape of the bipartite thoracic fovea, reduced leg scopulae, smaller spinnerets, and other characters, which are presumably apomorphic. We propose two taxonomic changes: 1) based on widely spaced lateral eyes the Western African genus Badia Roewer, 1961 is transferred from Chediminae to Palpimaninae, and 2) Fernandezina gyirongensis Hu & Li, 1987 from China, based on palpal morphology, is transferred to the Asian genus Steriphopus Simon, 1887 for a new combination Steriphopus gyirongensis (Hu & Li, 1987) comb. n.