Spiders of the Rhoicininae (Pisauridae) from western Peru and Ecuador. American Museum novitates ; no. 1470

Resumen

A small suite of spiders, collected in river valleys of coastal Ecuador and Peru, consists of one specimen of a new species of Rhoicinus Simon and several of the closely related new genus Rhoicinaria Exline.This material is the first to be recorded since Simon's proposal of the genus in 1898, and furnishes new data on the subfamily Rhoicininae.The spiders of the Rhoicininae present a problem in family relationships.Their habits so far as known, as well as some morphological characters, relate them to the Lycosidae, where Simon placed them (1898, p. 129; 1898a, pp. 320-322).They build no webs, are ambulatory, and the female attaches her egg cocoon to the posterior spinnerets, appearing in life much like the lycosid Pirata.The eye arrangement, chelicerae, and pat- tern of the abdomen, however, relate the group to the Agalenidae, where Petrunkevitch (1928, pp. 9, 38; 1939, p. 166) included it.' Mrs. Don L. Frizzell, Rolla, Missouri. AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESAgalenidae in (1) the notched trochanters, (2) the trichobothria arranged in irregular double rows on the tibiae, metatarsi, and tarsi, (3) the lower claw with one or no teeth, (4) the divided anal tubercle, (5) the basal excavations of the labium, and (6) the attachment of the egg sac to the posterior spinnerets.None of these characters is incompatible with those of the family Pisauridae.The Pisauridae, moreover, are intermediate in taxonomic position between the Lycosidae and Agalenidae.Several pisaurid genera have characters and/or habits in common with one or the other of these families.Consequently, the Rhoicininae are here placed in the family Pisauridae.