Pimoa cthulhu
| Pimoa cthulhu | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Pimoidae |
| Genus: | Pimoa |
| Species: | P. cthulhu
|
| Binomial name | |
| Pimoa cthulhu Hormiga,1994
| |
Pimoa cthulhuis aspeciesof thespiderfamilyPimoidae.It is one of twenty-one described species in the genusPimoa.[1]
Etymology
[edit]Pimoais derived from thelanguage of the Gosiutepeople inUtahand means "big legs".[2]Gustavo Hormiga, who named the species, derived thespecific namefromH. P. Lovecraft's fictional deityCthulhu,which Hormiga writes is "akin to the powers of Chaos".[1]
Distribution
[edit]The range ofPimoa cthulhuis restricted to areas ofMendocinoandSonoma countiesin westernCalifornia.Within that range the species is associated withredwoodforestland habitats such as redwood stumps and logs.[1]
Type specimens
[edit]Four specimens ofPimoa cthulhuwere collected and used in the 1994type descriptionauthored by Gustavo Hormiga of the Department of Entomology at theNational Museum of Natural History.Gustavo Hormiga chose a male specimen collected from the southern end of theMendocino Woodlands State Parkfrom a hollow redwood stump in September 1990 asholotype.[1]One of the two femaleparatypeswas also from a hollow redwood stump in the Mendocino Woodlands. Both specimens were collected byDarrell Ubickof theCalifornia Academy of Sciences.Two more paratypes, another male and a second female, were collected from the camp in Mendocino Woodlands in February 1979 and February 1973 respectively by S. C. Williams. The holotype and three paratypes are currently housed in the collections of the California Academy of Sciences, while the fourth paratype is in Darrell Ubick's private collection.[1]
Description
[edit]MalePimoa cthulhuare distinguishable from related species by the unique cluster of thick spines found on the cymbial projection. FemaleP. cthulhuare very similar to the related speciesP. vera,but are distinguishable by the long sausage-likeepigynumwhich is narrower and laterally compressed at the distal end.[1]Males ofP. cthulhuhave acephalothoraxlength which ranges from 4.4 to 5.7 millimetres (0.17 to 0.22 in) while females range from 4.0 to 6.1 millimetres (0.16 to 0.24 in). Both males and females are very similar in coloration, with a light to very light brown cephalothorax that is slightly darker towards the margins and an abdomen that is dark gray with four dorsal whitish spots. The males have a brown sternum, while in the females the sternum is reddish brown. While the females have legs which are dark reddish, the male legs are covered in longsetaeinstead.[1]
References
[edit]- ^abcdefgHormiga, G. (1994)."A revision and cladistic analysis of the spider family Pimoidae (Araneoidea: Araneae)"(PDF).Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology.549(549): 1–104.doi:10.5479/si.00810282.549.
- ^Hormiga, G.; Buckle, D. J.; Scharff, N. (2005)."Nanoa,an enigmatic new genus of pimoid spiders from western North America (Pimoidae, Araneae) "(PDF).Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.145(2): 249–262.doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00192.x.