Abstract
Four new species of the Mouse Spider genus Missulena Walckenaer, 1805 (family Actinopodidae) are described from Western Australia based on morphological features of adult males. Missulena leniae sp. n. (from the Carnarvon and Yalgoo biogeographic regions), Missulena mainae sp. n. (Carnarvon), Missulena melissae sp. n. (Pilbara) and Missulena pinguipes sp. n. (Mallee) represent a broad spectrum of morphological diversity found in this genus and differ from other congeners by details of the male copulatory bulb, colour patterns, eye sizes, leg morphology and leg spination. Two of the species, M. pinguipes sp. n. and M. mainae sp. n., are characterised by swollen metatarsi of the fourth legs in males, a feature not previously recorded in the family. A key to males of all named Missulena species from Australia is presented and allows their identification based on external morphology.
RAS ID
19209
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2014
Faculty
Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
School
School of Natural Sciences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publisher
Pensoft Publishers
Comments
Miglio, L., Harms, D., Framenau, V., & Harvey, M. (2014). Four new Mouse Spider species (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Actinopodidae, Missulena) from Western Australia. Zookeys, 410. pp. 121-148. doi:10.3897/zookeys.410.7156. Available here