Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:23:01.203Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genital mechanics in some neotropical pholcid spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae), with implications for systematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1998

Bernhard A. Huber
Bernhard A. Huber
Affiliation:
Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Ciudad Universitaria, Costa Rica
Get access

Abstract

Genital mechanics are studied in five species from three genera of neotropical pholcid spiders. The study focuses on the function of a pointed and upward projecting (‘pup’) apophysis on the male pedipalpal femur: it engages an indentation in the genital bulb during copulation. This character is geographically restricted to spiders in Central and North America and the West Indies and is considered a key character of the monophyletic ‘Modisimus group’. This includes the genera Modisimus Simon, 1893, Psilochorus Simon, 1893, Bryantina Brignoli, 1985, Anopsicus Chamberlin & Ivie, 1938, and some species now misplaced in Coryssocnemis Simon, 1893 and Blechroscelis Simon, 1893. Evidence for the polyphyly of the following genera is presented: Psilochorus, Coryssocnemis, and Blechroscelis. Some notes on the reproductive biology of the species studied are briefly presented.

Keywords

genital mechanicsfunctional morphologyAraneaePholcidaesystematics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Zoology , Volume 244 , Issue 4 , April 1998 , pp. 587 - 599
Copyright
© 1998 The Zoological Society of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)