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Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e79205
doi: 10.3897/BDJ.10.e79205
Taxonomic Paper
First description of the male of Cyclocosmia
ricketti (Araneae, Halonoproctidae) from China
Ye-Jie Lin , Linrui Yu , Xunyou Yan , Shuqiang Li
‡ Hebei Key Laboratory of Animal Diversity, College of Life Science, Langfang, China
§ Jinshan College of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
| Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Corresponding author: Ye-Jie Lin (linyejie15@gmail.com), Xunyou Yan (yanxunyou@163.com)
Academic editor: Jeremy Miller
Received: 11 Dec 2021 | Accepted: 17 Jan 2022 | Published: 20 Jan 2022
Citation: Lin Y-J, Yu L, Yan X, Li S (2022) First description of the male of Cyclocosmia ricketti (Araneae,
Halonoproctidae) from China. Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e79205. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e79205
Abstract
Background
The genus Cyclocosmia Ausserer, 1871 of the spider family Halonoproctidae Pocock, 1901
includes ten known species from North America and Asia. Since Cyclocosmia ricketti was
described by Pocock in 1901, no males of this species have ever been reported.
New information
The male of Cyclocosmia ricketti is described for the first time, based on a specimen
collected near the type locality in Fujian Province, China. A morphological description and
illustrations are given.
Keywords
Fujian, sclerotised disc, taxonomy, trapdoor spider
‡ § ‡ |
© Lin Y et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Introduction
The genus Cyclocosmia Ausserer, 1871 of the spider family Halonoproctidae Pocock, 1901
includes ten known species from North America (3) and Asia (7), six of them being found in
China: C. lannaensis Schwendinger, 2005 (♂♀, China, Thailand), C. latusicosta Zhu et al.,
2006 (♂♀, China, Vietnam), C. liui Xu et al., 2017 (♀, China), C. ricketti (Pocock, 1901) (♀,
China), C. sublatusicosta Yu & Zhang, 2018 (♂, China) and C. subricketti Yu & Zhang,
2018 (♂♀, China) (World Spider Catalog 2021; Li 2020).
Cyclocosmia ricketti was initially reported as Halonoproctus ricketti, based on one female
specimen from Kuatun, north-western Fokien in China, now known as Guadun (27.7359°N,
117.6408°E) in Fujian Province. A Cyclocosmia male was collected 130 km (in a straight
line) away from the type locality, which we believe to be conspecific and which we describe
here (Fig. 6)
Figure 1.
Cyclocosmia ricketti, male from Mangdang Mountain: A habitus, dorsal view; B eye group; C
labium and sternum, ventral view; D abdomen, posterior view; E spinnerets, ventral view.
2Lin Y et al
Figure 2.
Cyclocosmia ricketti, male from Mangdang Mountain, left palp with distorted palpal organ: A
prolateral view; B ventral view; C retrolateral view.
Figure 3.
Cyclocosmia ricketti, male from Mangdang Mountain, right palpal bulb organ: A ventral view; B
dorsal view.
First description of the male of Cyclocosmia ricketti (Araneae, Halonoproctidae) ... 3
Materials and methods
The specimen was preserved in 80% ethanol and examined under a LEICA M205C
stereomicroscope. Images were taken with an Olympus C7070 zoom digital camera (7.1
megapixels). Habitus photographs of the preserved specimen were taken with a Sony
A7RIV digital camera, equipped with a Sony FE 90mm Goss lens. Photos were stacked
with Helicon Focus (Version 7.6.1) and processed with Adobe Photoshop CC2019.
All measurements are in millimetres and were obtained with an Olympus SZX16
stereomicroscope with a Zongyuan CCD industrial camera. The total length does not
include the chelicerae. Eye sizes are measured as the maximum diameter in either dorsal
or frontal view. Leg measurements are given as follows: total length (femur, patella, tibia,
metatarsus, tarsus).
Specimens, reported here, are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences (IZCAS) in Beijing and Muséum d'histoire naturelle (MHN) in Geneva.
Abbreviations: AE apophysis of embolic tip, ALE anterior lateral eyes, AME anterior
median eyes, E embolus, PLE posterior lateral eyes, PME posterior median eyes.
Figure 4.
Cyclocosmia ricketti, male from Mangdang Mountain, right palpal bulb organ: A prolateral
view; B retrolateral view.
4Lin Y et al
Taxon treatment
Cyclocosmia ricketti (Pocock, 1901)
• GBIF https://www.gbif.org/species/2163801
Nomenclature
Halonoproctus ricketti Pocock, 1901 in Pocock (1901): 209, pl. 21, fig. 1.
Cyclocosmia ricketti in Simon (1903): 885, figs. 1044–1047; Gertsch and Platnick
(1975): 18,19, figs. 28, 29, 32 and 36 (part); Song et al. (1999): 36, figs. 16H and K–L
(part); Schwendinger (2005): 227, figs. 2–8, pl. 1D; Zhu et al. (2006): 120, figs. 1 and 2;
Zhang et al. (2007): 385, fig. 101; Yin et al. (2012): 134, figs. 13a–e; Xu et al. (2017):
78, figs. 1B–L.
Material
a. continent: Asia; country: China; countryCode: China/CN; stateProvince: Fujian;
verbatimLocality: Nanping City, Yanping District, Mangdang Mountain, near Hengkeng;
verbatimElevation: 1078–1083 m; verbatimLatitude: 26.6395°N; verbatimLongitude:
118.0777°E; eventTime: GMT+8 22:30; year: 2021; month: 5; day: 2; individualCount: 1;
sex: male; lifeStage: adult; catalogNumber: IZCAS-Ar41617; occurrenceRemarks: found
in gutter; recordedBy: Linrui Yu
Description
Male: Body length 13.41. Carapace 6.19 long, 5.61 wide, dark reddish-brown, slightly
curved retrolaterally and rounded posteriorly, most of clypeal area covered with
reticular fuscous veins, thin ridges transversely running across area from clypeus to
fovea. Clypeus height 1.32; Few short, firm bristles concomitantly with ridges in front of
eyes and sparsely dispersed on and behind eye formation; no thick long bristles
discernible.
Eyes (Fig. 1B) situated on low mound and far back from anterior margin of carapace,
eye arrangement as in female, all eyes bright off-white, eye group 1.64 long, 0.90 wide.
Eye diameters and interdistances: AME 0.39, ALE 0.38, PME 0.27, PLE 0.30; AME-
AME 0.15, AME-ALE 0.16, AME-PME 0.16, PME-PME 0.68, PME-PLE 0.05, ALE-PLE
0.13; fovea similar to that of female, occupying about one fourth of carapace width at
that point.
Chelicerae relatively slender, similar to carapace in pigmentation, retrolaterally with
dark reticular pattern and thin wrinkles; promargin of groove with seven principal teeth
and five denticles, retromargin with ten sizable denticles, arranged in regular rows;
dense hair covering retromargin; prolateral surface of fang with serrated longitudinal
keel; rastellum conspicuously projected, with about eight distal spines.
First description of the male of Cyclocosmia ricketti (Araneae, Halonoproctidae) ... 5
Maxillae 4.07 long, 2.49 wide, yellow-brown, with about five tiny cuspules at prolateral
corner of ventral surface and numerous white setae on proventral surface.
Labium (Fig. 1C) 0.86 long, 1.29 wide, with same pigmentation as maxillae, tip with few
gracile hairs.
Sternum (Fig. 1C) 3.53 long, 3.56 wide, light yellow-brown, with paramedian
inconspicuous flower-shaped sigillum in its centre.
Palp (Fig. 2 - showing palp with distorted palpal organ) with smooth surface, femur
almost glabrous and ornamented with numerous transversal striae; distal part of patella
a
b
c
d
Figure 5.
Apex of embolus, prolateral view: A, B Cyclocosmia latusicosta, variation in two males from
Cuc Phuong N.P., Vietnam; C C. lannaensis male from Menglun, China; D C. ricketti male
from Mangdang Mountain, China; E C. siamensis from Doi Suthep, Thailand. Photos were
taken by Peter Schwendinger (D and E).
6Lin Y et al
bearing few scattered black hairs; tibia cylindrical, basal half slightly inflated and distal
part narrow, ventrally covered with hairs; tarsus short, dorsally with several hairs, with
vaulted emarginate apex; width of bulbous part of palpal organ in retrolateral view 1.33
(Fig. 4), divided into left and right parts by deep angular distal invagination (Fig. 3A);
embolus linear in ventral and dorsal view, slightly curved in lateral view, its
apex
tapering, length about 2.39 (Fig. 4); apophysis of embolic apex pointing dorsad, with tip
of embolus narrowly rounded (Fig. 5d).
Legs distinctly more slender and smoother than in female, light reddish-brown, with
conspicuous longitudinal bands on dorsal surface and fine transversal fissures; tarsi,
metatarsi and tibiae armed with blunt setae and black spines scattered on ventral side;
ventral side of all tarsi, except tarsus IV, with dense short, white scopula covering about
distal half of the segment. Legs I and II with setae and spines denser than on legs III
and IV; patellae and femora almost glabrous; two spines inside tarsal scopula on leg I,
three spines on leg II, five spines on leg III, seven spines on leg IV; few short spines
present laterally on dorsal side of all patellae; distal part of tarsus IV ventrally with a
few gracile, serrate white hairs. Leg measurements: I 17.53 (5.63 + 6.07 + 3.86 +
1.97), II 14.62 (4.56 + 4.63 + 3.34 + 2.09), III 14.08 (4.15 + 4.57 + 3.11 + 2.25) and IV
17.93 (5.09 + 5.72 + 4.51 + 2.61). Leg formula (from longest to shortest leg): 4123.
Trichobothria tibia, metatarsus and tarsus surface with few, terminal one longest.
Paired tarsal claws with two teeth near the base; unpaired claws bare.
Figure 6.
Distribution records of Cyclocosmia species (blue spots) and male C. ricketti in this study
(green spot) in Asia: 1 C. lannaensis Schwendinger, 2005; 2 C. latusicosta Zhu, Zhang &
Zhang, 2006; 3 C. liui Xu, Xu & Li, 2017; 4 C. ricketti (Pocock, 1901); 5 C. siamensis
Schwendinger, 2005; 6 C. sublatusicosta Yu & Zhang, 2018; 7 C. subricketti Yu & Zhang,
2018.
First description of the male of Cyclocosmia ricketti (Araneae, Halonoproctidae) ... 7
Abdomen (Fig. 1D) 7.22 long, its rounded disc 5.17 in diameter, dark yellow-brown,
clearly less sclerotised than in female; tergum with few adnate blunt bristles and an
conspicuous cardiac mark mid-dorsally; abdominal disc with narrow ribs and
shallow
grooves, 30 radiating ribs on each side; margins of abdominal seam inconspicuous, rib
angles slightly elevated, each with several small hairs; positions and shapes of muscle
impressions as in female, but only two pairs of short bristles on their rims.
Spinnerets: posterior median spinnerets thin, one-segmented, 0.71 long; posterior
lateral spinnerets relatively thick, three-segmented, 1.51 long (proximal segment 0.57,
median 0.36, distal 0.57) with with distal segment narrower than others; anus covered
by crescent-shaped sclerite, not connected to ventral median rib angle (Fig. 1E).
Comparative material studied: Cyclocosmia lannaensis, 1♂ (MHN, Fig. 5d), CHINA,
Yunnan Province, Menglun, 16.–31.V.2007; Cyclocosmia latusicosta, 2♂ (IZCAS,
Fig. 5a), VIETNAM, Ninh Binh Province, Cuc Phuong National Park, pitfall traps, 1.–
30.I.2008, leg. Pham Dinh Sac; Cyclocosmia siamensis, 1♂ (MHN, Fig. 5b),
THAILAND, Doi Suthep.
Diagnosis
Cyclocosmia ricketti differs from other species of Cyclocosmia by the character of 23–
33 radiating ribs on each side of abdominal disc (Fig. 1D) (vs. 20–23 in C. lannaensis
and C. latusicosta, 29–33 in C. siamensis, 34 in C. sublatusicosta and 32–34 in C.
subricketti). It can be distinguished from C. latusicosta by the lack of the elevated
central zone inside the upper pair of muscle impressions (Fig. 1D) (vs. elevated central
zone present in C. latusicosta) and it differs from C. siamensis, C. subricketti and C.
sublatusicosta by the latter in the upper and median pair of muscle impressions on the
opisthosomal disc separated by one transversal rib (vs. separated by two transversal
ribs in C. siamensis, C. subricketti and C. sublatusicosta ( Schwendinger 2005 Fig. 22;
Yu and Zhang 2018 Figs. 4A and 5G)).
The male of C. ricketti can be distinguished by the following characters: in the ventral
view of the palp organ, the diameter of the bulb is about 1/2 of the embolus length (vs.
1/3 in C. latusicosta and C. sublatusicosta (Yu and Zhang 2018 Figs. 1D and 3D)), both
sides of the bulb are separated by an angular invagination in ventral view (Fig. 4A and
B) (vs. rounded invagination in C. lannaensis (Schwendinger 2005 Figs. 41–44)) and in
prolateral view, the apophysis of the embolic tip points dorsally (vs. points laterally in C.
latusicosta, C. siamensis and C. lannaensis) (Fig. 5).
In females, the length of spermathecae to its width is 3:2 (Xu et al. 2017 Figs. 1G and
H; Zhu et al. 2006 Fig. 2E) (vs. 2:1 in C. latusicosta, C. liui and C. siamensis (Xu et al.
2017 Fig. 3F; Zhu et al. 2006 Figs. 6F–J; Schwendinger 2005 Figs. 17–21)).
Distribution
China (Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang) (Fig. 6)
8Lin Y et al
Acknowledgements
We thank Sarah Crews for checking the English text. Peter Schwendinger contributed
some photos. The manuscript benefitted greatly from comments by Jeremy Miller, Peter
Schwendinger and Arthur E. Decae.
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First description of the male of Cyclocosmia ricketti (Araneae, Halonoproctidae) ... 9
