ZooKeys 205: 9 1-98 (20 | 2) A peer-revi iewed open-access journal I doi: 10.3897/zookeys.205.3077 SHORT COMMUNICATION #7Z,00Ke y www.zookeys.o rg Launched to accelerate biodiversity research First description of the male with redescription of the female of Araneus strandiellus Charitonov, |95 | (Araneae, Araneidae) Yuri M. Marusik!2, Anna Sestakov423, Mikhail M. Omelko*® | Institute for Biological Problems of the North of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Portovaya Str. 18, 685000 Magadan, Russia 2 Zoological Museum, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turku, Finland 3 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynska dolina, 84215 Bratislava, Slovakia 4 Far Eastern Federal University, Sukhanova, 8, Vladivostok 690950 Russia § Gornotaezhnaya Station FEB RAS, Gornotaezhnoe Vil., Ussuriyski Dist., Primorski Krai 692533 Russia Corresponding author: Anna Sestdkovd (asestakova@gmail.com) Academic editor: Lywbomir Penev | Received 13 March 2012 | Accepted 18 June 2012 | Published 4 July 2012 Citation: Marusik YM, Sestakova A, Omelko MM (2012) First description of the male with redescription of the female of Araneus strandiellus Charitonoy, 1951 (Araneae, Araneidae). ZooKeys 205: 91-98. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.205.3077 Abstract Redescription of Central Asian orb-weaver Araneus strandiellus Charitonov, 1951, only known from the orig- inal description of female. The male of this species, previously unknown, is described here for the first time. Keywords Central Asia, orb-weaver, taxonomy, redescription Introduction Araneidae with 3029 species belonging to 168 genera is third largest spider family (Platnick 2012). The most species rich genus in the family and possibly in the whole order is Araneus Clerck, 1757. It encompasses 668 species distributed throughout the globe (Platnick 2012). The genus is studied unevenly in different parts of the world. The most comprehensive studies were made in the Nearctic (Levi 1971, 1973), Europe (Grasshoff 1968; Sestakova et al. 2009), China (Yin et al. 1997) and Japan (Tani- kawa 2007, 2009). Only few attempts were made to split the genus into smaller and Copyright Yuri M. Marusik et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 92 Yuri M. Marusik et al. / ZooKeys 205: 91-98 (2012) more natural groups. The most significant contribution was made by Archer (195 1a-c, 1958) who described or revalidated over a dozen of genera and subgenera. Most of these taxa were synonymized with Araneus by Levi (1971, 1973). The orb weaving spider Avaneus strandiellus Charitonov, 1951 is only known by female and since the description was never considered in any other taxonomical publication (cf. Platnick 2012). This species was originally described from northern Tajikistan on the basis of the female holotype. Besides the type locality, the species has been reported from Uzbekistan (Marusik 1989), western Kazakhstan (Pavlenko 1985) and Tuva in South Siberia (Logunov et al. 1998; Marusik et al. 2000). In the original description Charitonov (1951) defined main features of the new species in detail, but did not compare it with any other Avaneus. While working with Araneidae material from Siberia and Central Asia we found several samples of A. strandiellus containing both sexes. The main goal of this paper is de- scription of the male for the first time, and providing detailed redescription of the female. Material and methods Microphotographs were made with an Olympus Camedia E-520 camera attached to an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope at the Zoological Museum, University of Turku. Digital images were montaged using “CombineZP” image stacking software. Figures were edited in Corel Photo Paint X4 and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. Specimens where photographed while placed in dish with paraffin on the bottom filled with 70% ethanol and using different sized holes to keep the samples in the required position. Studied material is deposited in Department of Zoology, Perm State University (PSU), Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (ZMMU), Siberian Zoological Mu- seum of the Institute for Ecology and Systematics of Animals (ISEA), Institute for Biological Problems of the North, Magadan (IBPN) or Alexander V. Gromov (Almaty, Kazakhstan) personal collection (AGA). All measurements are in millimetres. Taxonomy Araneus strandiellus Charitonov, 1951 http://species-id.net/wiki/Araneus_strandiellus Figs 1-14, 18-21 A. s. Charitonov 1951: 210, f. 2a-b (). A. s.: Pavlenko 1985: 153; Marusik 1989: 41; Marusik et al. 1990: 17; Mikhailov 1997: 116; A. s.: Logunov et al. 1998: 130; Marusik et al. 2000: 13. Material examined. Holotype 2 (PSU), TAJIKISTAN, Varzob botanical Station, 30.07.1945 (V.V.Gussakovski) [ca 38°50'N, 68°50'E]. KAZAKHSTAN, Almaty First description of the male with redescription of the female of Araneus strandiellus... 93 Figures 1-8. Habitus of Araneus strandiellus. \-3 female, dorsal, ventral and lateral 4 female carapace and femora I and II, prolateral 5 male femur I, prolateral 6-7 male, dorsal and ventral 8 prosoma of male, lateral. Area: 1439 1 juv. (ZMMU), environs of Bakans Town, tugai and thicket, June 1986 (Ch.K. Tarabaev); 12 (AGA), Charyn River canyon, Sartogai Boundary, 12.06.1993 (S.V. Ovchinnikov). RUSSIA, Tuva: 14 49 (IBPN), Tere-Khol’ Lake, Sharlaa Stand and around, 40°01.47'N, 95°03.45'E, 1150 m, 6—14.07.1996 (Yu.M.Marusik); 14 19 (ISEA), Tere-Khol’ Lake, SE shore, Eder-Elezin Sands (Desert), 1150 m, 12.07.1993 (Yu.M. Marusik); 14 (ISEA), Tere-Khol’ Lake, S shore, sands with sparse Caragana shrubs, 6—26.05.1990 (O. Lyakhov). Diagnosis. Habitus, pattern and copulatory organs of A. strandiellus resemble only those in A. pallasi. Both species have simple, weakly sclerotised epigyne with inflexible scapus; males lack stipes, subterminal apophysis, embolic cup, and have 94 Yuri M. Marusik et al. / ZooKeys 205: 91-98 (2012) 02 mm 02mm uw 20 WW Z'0 Figures 9-18. Copulatory organs of Araneus strandiellus (9—14, 18) and A. pallasi (15-17). 9-17 left male palp 9 prolateral 10 ventral-anterior | | ventral-posterior 12 cymbium removed, prolateral 13 same, ventral 14 median apophysis, ventral 15 same 16 cymbium removed, prolateral 17 same, ventral 18 epigyne, posterior. Co conductor Em embolus Ma median apophysis Pm terminal process of median apophysis Ra radix Sp pocket on scapus of epigyne Ta terminal apophysis. weakly sclerotised conductor; long filamentous embolus; long (as embolus), nar- row terminal apophysis; median apophysis with one prolaterally directed process (Fig. 9-17) (much shorter non filamentous embolus, and median apophysis with two First description of the male with redescription of the female of Araneus strandiellus... 95 processes in majority of Avaneus s. s.', e. g. diadematus group (Levi 1971)) and males have unmodified tibia II. Araneus strandiellus can be distinguished from sibling A. pallasi by having dorsal abdominal humps, and triangular scapus with pocket (wide, round scapus in A. pallasi). Males of these two species can be separated from other Araneus species by the round base of embolus, absence of the hump on tegulum and having longer median apophysis (Fig. 12, 16) with a triangular process in A. strandiel- lus (Fig. 14), and claw-like in A. pallasi (Fig 15). Description (specimens from Kazakhstan). Male. Total length 3.0. Carapace 1.4 long, 1.3 wide. Length of patella + tibia 1 2.15 (patella 0.7; tibia 1.45). Carapace pale brown, covered with pale hairs; indistinctly darker on margins and with elongate whit- ish median spot (Fig. 6). Cephalic area of carapace slightly protruding. Diameter of AME subequal to PME. Distance between PME 1.3 times longer than between AME. Basal part of chelicera and retrolateral side dark brown. Promargin of chelicera with 3 teeth, retromargin with 2 small teeth. Sternum brown, with wide light spot in the cen- tre (Fig. 7). Dorsum of abdomen with pair of small humps (Fig. 6). Humps separated by less than one diameter. Abdomen dark brown, with two white transverse bands. Venter of abdomen with dark median band, and whitish lateral bands (Fig. 7). Legs with annulations. Tibia I] unmodified, similar to tibia I. Femur I prolaterally with 4 strong and long spines (Figs 5, 8) and with 7 short strong retrolateral spines. Palp as in Figs 9-14. Patella with 2 macrosetae. Tegulum enlarged and all sclerites (embolus, conductor, radix, terminal and median apophyses) partly hidden by tegulum and cymbium. Terminal apophysis (7a) long, flat, semicircular and weakly sclerotised; it runs apically between cymbium and tegulum. The long, thin and well sclerotised filiform embolus (£m) follows a groove in the terminal apophysis. Radix (Ra) short, stipes absent. Conductor (Co) very small, weakly sclerotised; supports tip of embolus from below. Me- dian apophysis (Ma) with relatively small, triangular process (Pm) directed prolaterally. Female. Total length 2.75—4.0. Carapace 1.25—1.45 long, 1.2—1.4 wide. Length of patella + tibia I 1.9-2.15 (patella 0.6-0.7; tibia 1.3-1.5). Coloration and pattern of carapace as in male, but paler (Figs 1-3). Diameter of AME 1.3 times smaller than PME. Distance between PME 1.4 times longer than distance between AME. Cheli- ceral teeth as in male. Frontal part of chelicerae yellow, retrolateral side dark. White spot in the centre of sternum wider than in male. Dorsum of abdomen with pair of conical humps separated by less than one di- ameter. Abdomen pale with dark pattern (Fig. 1). Venter of abdomen white between epigastric furrow and spinnerets; white area as wide as epigastric furrow (Fig. 2). ' Araneus is the largest genus of all orb-weavers with many misplaced species. Unfortunately only few informal groups was made (e.g. diadematus group (Levi 1971), small orb weavers of the genus Araneus (Levi 1973), big species with humps, middle-sized species without humps and small species without humps (Sestakova et al. 2009)). It is impossible to compare studied species with others of this huge genus, for that reason we chose not very specific and convenient term “sensu stricto” meaning species close to nominal species A. angulatus Clerck, 1758, in other words “the true Araneus species”. 96 Yuri M. Marusik et al. / ZooKeys 205: 91-98 (2012) 0,2mm . \ 0,2 mm \ Figures 19-21. Epigyne of Araneus strandiellus. \9 lateral 20 ventral 21 posterior. Sp pocket on scapus of epigyne. Femur I with 2—3 strong, long and pale spines (Figs 4). Legs yellow, with indistinct dark annulation. Ventral side of femur pale in almost all length. Patella pale with indis- tinct dark spot. Tibia and metatarsi without central dark rings or with small, dark spots. Epigyne as in Figs 18-21, flat with weakly sclerotised inflexible triangular scapus (i.e. immovable merged with base of epigyne); tip of scapus with pocket (Sp); copulatory ducts and spermatheca slightly visible through cuticle. Base of epigyne always embedded in epigastric furrow, therefore posterior part visible only after its dissection or excavation. Variations. Specimens from Tuva have darker coloration, lack white spot on cara- pace and sternum. Females from Tuva have no wide median band on the venter of abdomen. Importance of these differences is unclear to us. Distribution. The species is known from the Aral Sea to eastern Tuva (Fig. 22) south to Tajikistan. Comments. Generic affinity to Araneus, a genus comprising over 600 species (cf. Platnick 2012), is debatable. In comparison to Avaneus s. s., A. strandiellus has only 3 promarginal and 2 retromarginal teeth (4 promarginal and 3 retromarginal in Araneus s. s.); females do not have heavy sclerotised epigyne and flexible scapus; and males lack stipes, subterminal apophysis and cap on embolus, conductor is very small and weak sclerotised and median apophysis has only one process. Judging from the general shape of epigyne (presence of inflexible scapus) and the male palpal configuration (shape of median and terminal apophysis, embolus) A. strandiellus and probably the closest relative A. pallasi mostly resemble Neoscona Simon, 1864 (one of the junior synonyms of A. pallasi was considered in Neoscona) or Agalenatea Archer, 1951. However unlike A. strandiellus and A. pallasi, males of both Agalenatea and Neoscona have stipes and subterminal apophysis, an anticlock- wise course of embolus, legs with hook on coxa I and modified tibia II (more nu- merous and stronger spines than on other legs). Epigyne of these two related species are weakly sclerotised and embedded in epigastric furrow (posterior part visible only after its dissection or excavation), while in Agalenatea and Neoscona epigyne are not embedded and heavy sclerotised. First description of the male with redescription of the female of Araneus strandiellus... 97 Figure 22. Known collecting localities of Araneus strandiellus. Acknowledgements We thank Sergei L. Esyunin (PSU) for the loan of the holotype of A. strandiel- lus. Alexander V. Gromov provided us with information about occurrence of A. strandiellus in Charyn Canyon (Kazakhstan). Special thanks go to Seppo Koponen who allowed us to use equipment in the Zoological Museum of the University of Turku. English of an earlier draft of this manuscript was kindly checked by Don- ald Buckle. This work was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant Ne 11-0401716 and 12-04-01548). Last but not least, we thank reviewers for their valuable comments. References Archer AF (1951a) Studies in the orbweaving spiders (Argiopidae). 1. American museum novitates 1487: 1-52. Archer AF (1951b) Studies in the orbweaving spiders (Argiopidae). 2. American museum novitates 1502: 1-34 Archer AF (1951c) Remarks on certain European genera of argiopid spiders. Natural History Miscellanea 84: 1-4. 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