Emertonella taczanowskii

Emertonella taczanowskii (Keyserling, 1886) Figs 1 D – F, 2 E, 2 F, 3 C, 3 D, 5 Euryopis taczanowskii Keyserling, 1886: 47, pl. 12, fig. 160 (holotype: female, PERU, Tumbes; deposited in Polish Academy of Sciences; not examined); Levi 1963: 132, fig. 10 (synonym of Eu. floricola, Eu. nigripes and Eu. rosascostai); Levi 1967: 178, figs 37–41 (male and female); Yoshida 1992: 139, figs 1–4 (male); Zhu 1998: 37, fig. 17 D (male, republication of the original figure); Song et al. 1999: 123, fig. 63 G (male, republication of the original figure). Euryopis floricola Keyserling, 1886: 261, pl. 21, fig. 309 (female). Euryopis nigripes Banks, 1929: 86, pl. 3, fig. 47, pl. 4, fig. 60 (female); Levi 1954: 24, figs 38–52 (male and female, synonym of Eu. dentata). Euryopis dentata Gertsch & Mulaik, 1936: 6, figs 10, 11 (male and female). Euryopis rosascostai Mello-Leitão, 1944: 325, fig. 6 (female). Emertonella taczanowskii Yoshida, 2002: 17, figs 31–34 (male and female, transfer from Euryopis); Yoshida 2003: 187, figs 524–527 (male and female); Yoshida 2009: 393, figs 357–359 (male and female); Yin et al. 2012: 329, fig. 130 f (male, republication of the original figure); Almaraz-López et al. 2025: 139, fig. 5 a, b, l (female). Material examined. China • 1 male (LJ 201903893); Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden, Tropical Rainforest; 21.9281°N, 101.2558°E; elev. 550 m; 22 September 2019; Jian Chen et al. leg. • 1 female (LJ 201903320); Yunnan Province, Puer City, Ximahe Park; 22.7897°N, 100.9842°E; elev. 1340 m; 19 September 2019; Jian Chen et al. leg. • 1 female (LJ 202003300); Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden; 21 July 2020; collector unknown. Diagnosis. Emertonella taczanowskii is similar to Em. nasuta (Rodrigues, Marta & Figueiredo, 2021), comb. nov. in having a needle like embolic spire pointing to 1: 30 o’clock position (cf. Figs 1 D – F, 3 C, 3 D, 5 and Rodrigues et al. 2021: figs 3, 4, 8 B, 9 C, D), but can be distinguished by: 1. opisthosoma triangular (vs oval), 2. theridiid tegular apophysis ox horn shaped in ventral view (vs triangular), 3. atrium larger than spermathecae (vs smaller than spermathecae), and 4. anterior spermathecae larger than the posterior pair (vs smaller than the posterior pair). Redescription. Male (LJ 201903893): Total length 1.93. Carapace 0.72 long, 0.67 wide. Opisthosoma 1.25 long, 1.05 wide. Eyes: AME 0.05, ALE 0.06, PME 0.05, PLE 0.06, AME – AME 0.13, AME – ALE 0.09, PME – PME 0.12, PME – PLE 0.08, AME – PME 0.11, ALE – PLE 0.02. Measurements of legs: I 1.73 (0.57, 0.22, 0.45, 0.27, 0.22), II 2.03 (0.52, 0.27, 0.45, 0.50, 0.29), III 1.88 (0.59, 0.19, 0.38, 0.48, 0.24), IV 2.63 (0.80, 0.26, 0.55, 0.64, 0.38). Leg formula: IV-II-III-I. Palp (Figs 1 D – F, 2 E, 2 F): Tibia ~ 1 / 5 length of cymbium. Cymbium oval, with a small lamellar projection. Cymbial hook triangular, situated anterior margin of alveolus. Subtegulum bowl-like. Tegulum quadrangular. Median apophysis triangular in prolateral view. Theridiid tegular apophysis sclerotized, dorsally with a hump and denticles (arrow in Fig. 2 F), distal part with three denticles. Embolic base swollen; embolic spire needle like. Colouration (Fig. 5 A – C): Carapace and sternum brownish-black. Legs yellow to brown. Dorsal opisthosoma with white patches, medially with a triangular black marking, laterally with black spots; venter dark brown, anterior part of spinnerets with a white line. Spinnerets brown. Female (LJ 201903320): Total length 3.02. Carapace 0.92 long, 0.92 wide. Opisthosoma 2.01 long, 1.68 wide. Eyes: AME 0.10, ALE 0.09, PME 0.08, PLE 0.07, AME – AME 0.12, AME – ALE 0.10, PME – PME 0.16, PME – PLE 0.12, AME – PME 0.13, ALE – PLE 0.04. Measurements of legs: I 3.15 (0.84, 0.35, 0.67, 0.84, 0.45), II 3.47 (0.89, 0.37, 0.68, 0.97, 0.56), III 3.33 (0.98, 0.31, 0.71, 0.81, 0.52), IV 4.06 (0.98, 0.37, 0.92, 1.31, 0.48). Leg formula: IV-II-III-I. Epigyne (Fig. 3 C, D): Epigyne with a rounded atrium, anterior margins of atrium thinner than posterior margins. Copulatory openings unobvious, situated anterior atrium. Copulatory ducts and subcopulatory ducts fused and unobvious. Posterior spermathecae spherical. Anterior spermathecae spherical, ~ 1.5 × wider than posterior pair. Fertilization ducts curved, arising from posterior part of anterior spermathecae. Colouration (Fig. 5 D – F): as in male, but generally darker. Distribution. China (Yunnan), Japan, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, USA to Argentina (WSC 2026). Comments. Levi (1954) considered this species to be polytypic, exhibiting two pattern phases and slight variations in theridiid tegular apophysis and epigyne (e. g., Keyserling 1886: pl. 12 fig. 160, pl. 21 fig. 309, Levi 1954: figs 39–41, 45–48, 50–52; Yoshida 1992: figs 1–4). During the study of publications referring to “ Em. taczanowskii ”, we found that female specimens from China, India, and Pakistan were characterized by a triangular atrium, the interdistance between the anterior spermathecae clearly shorter than that between the posterior pair, and two black markings on the anterior dorsal opisthosoma (fig. Zhu 1998: 17 A – C; Song et al. 1999: fig. 63 C, D; Yin et al. 2012: fig. 130 a, b, d, e; Rajoria 2015: figs 5–8; Khan et al. 2025: figs 14, 15) conform well to Eu. deplanata (fig. 13 in Schenkel 1936, transfer to Emertonella in the current paper) in the morphology of the epigyne and opisthosoma. Notably, no matching males were examined in these studies. We therefore consider that the specimens reported in the aforementioned publications were misidentified and should be referred to Em. deplanata (Schenkel, 1936), comb. nov. In the current study, specimens collected from Yunnan, China, exhibit an epigyne with a rounded atrium and the interdistance between the anterior spermathecae almost as wide as that between the posterior pair, fully matching the illustrations provided by Levi (Levi 1954: figs 50–52). Accordingly, the identification of our specimens as Em. taczanowskii is confirmed.