The spider genus Nops MacLeay is revised, with redescriptions of 22 previously known species and descriptions of 12 new species. A new diagnosis for the genus is provided and keys to separate the species are proposed. After this revision Nops includes 34 extant species, thereof 15 (44%) occur in the Caribbean Islands, four (12%) in Central America and 15 (44%) in South America. Females of Nops meridionalis Keyserling and Nops gertschi Chickering are found and described for the first time. Three new synonymies are proposed: Nops virginicus Sánchez–Ruiz with Nops blandus Bryant, Nops craneae Chickering with Nops maculatus Simon and Nops proseni Birabén with Nops farhati Prosen. Four species are considered inquerenda: Nops anisitsi Strand, Nops bellulus Chamberlin, Nops branicki (Taczanowski) and Nops glaucus Hasselt. The following new species are described: N. jaragua n. sp., N. navassa n. sp., and N. pallidus n. sp. from the Caribbean region; N. campeche n. sp. and N. tico n. sp. from Central America, and N. alexenriquei n. sp., N. amazonas n. sp., N. bahia n. sp., N. ipojuca n. sp., N. itapetinga n. sp., N. minas n. sp. and N. pocone n. sp. from South America. New geographical records and distribution maps are provided for all species, with illustrations and reviewed diagnoses. The Nops species are restricted to the Neotropical region, from the Caribbean Islands and Mexico to the north of Argentina. The highest species richness is concentrated in the Wider Caribbean Region, including Central America and the north of Colombia and Venezuela where 64.7% of the species occur. Endemism in the Caribbean islands is very high; most of these species are single island endemics. A cladistic analysis, based on morphological data, was executed to test the monophyly of the genus. This is the first cladistic analysis of Caponiidae, and it includes besides the Nops species, 1) the six other species that were transferred from Nops, now in the genera Orthonops, Cubanops, Tarsonops and Medionops, and 2) Nopsides ceralbonus Chamberlin and Nyetnops guarani Platnick & Lise. Therefore, representatives of all known Nopinae genera are included in the ingroup. The data matrix comprises 41 taxa scored for 47 morphological characters. The analyses under equal weights resulted in six equally parsimonious trees of 99 steps. All these trees are congruent with a unique hypothesis for Nopinae genera. Thus, all topological differences among the most parsimonious trees were the consequence of different hypotheses of relationships within Nops. The same result was also found under implied weighting with constants of concavity k = 2 to 13, where the topology of all trees was congruent for a single Nopinae genera hypothesis, but relationships within Nops were not resolved. All analysis under equal and implied weights recovered the monophyly of Nops with high support values, but internal clades within the genus showed low branch supports. Our results thus suggest that to resolve the internal relationships of Nops, studies based on molecular evidence are necessary to counteract the deficit of morphological data. The hypothesis obtained for Nopinae showed high branch support values for most of clades, corroborating all the transfers made from Nops. Medionops was recovered as the sister group of Nops with high support values. Nops, Medionops and Nopsides form a closely related, distinct spider group among nopine, supported by five unambiguous synapomorphies. Two of these synapomorphies could be functionally related: the presence of an arolium on the anterior pretarsi and the elongated and dorsally reflexed unpaired claw on the anterior legs. Nopsides appears to be a genus with apomorphic characters, presenting highly modified legs, but lacking the crista and gladius, and gaining a pair of anterior lateral eyes. Nyetnops is sister to all other nopine genera. Our results identified the necessity of further studies on nopine leg structures (arolium, crista, gladius and adesmatic joints) to improve understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of Nopinae genera.
We update the knowledge of the unusual Caponiidae spiders from the West Indies with the description of four new species, and the redescription of Nops blandus (Bryant) including the first description of the female. Specimens previously assigned to N. blandus from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico represents two new species: Nops hispaniola n. sp. and Nops agnarssoni n. sp. respectively; while the distribution of the former is limited to British and U. S. Virgin Islands. The others two new species are Nops finisfurvus n. sp. from British Virgin Islands and Cubanops luquillo n. sp. from Puerto Rico. Female internal genitalia of Nops species are described, photographed and illustrated for the first time.
The new genus Medionops is proposed for a group of caponiid spiders found in South America and Panama. Nops simla Chickering and Nops cesari Dupérré are transferred to this new genus. Additionally, five new species are described: the type species Medionops blades n. sp. from Colombia; Medionops claudiae n. sp., Medionops murici n. sp. and Medionops ramirezi n. sp. from Brazil; and Medionops tabay n. sp. from Venezuela. All of these species belong to the subfamily Nopinae and have the three membranous translucent modifications found in some other nopine genera. However, in this new genus, the ventral translucent keel on the anterior metatarsi (crista herein) is very short, almost unnoticeable or even absent in some species. The translucent extension of the membrane between the anterior metatarsi and tarsi (gladius herein) retains the same shape, but it is absent in M. murici n. sp. Also, Medionops n. gen. species have an unpaired claw on all tarsi, which is elongate and dorsally reflexed, and is associated with a membranous globose translucent lobe (arolium herein); a structure present only in Nops MacLeay and Nopsides Chamberlin. Beside the characteristics mentioned above, members of this new genus differ from other nopine in the shape of labium and endites and in the conformation of male and female genitalia. The three membranous translucent modifications on legs of some nopine genera are discussed and their terminologies are standardized.
A synopsis of Caribbean filistatid diversity is recorded herein. A new genus, Antilloides, is proposed for five new species exclusively found in the Antilles: A. abeli n. sp., A. cubitas n. sp., and A. mesoliticus n. sp. from Cuba; A. haitises n. sp. from the Dominican Republic; and A. zozo n. sp. from the U. S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The genus Filistatoides is revised and includes four species: the type species F. insignis F.O.P. Cambridge, which occurs only in Guatemala; the female is described here for the first time; F. polita Franganillo sp. reval., comb. nov., which occurs only in Cuba; F. xichu n. sp. described from Mexico; and F. milloti (Zapfe) which does not appear to belong to the genus based on morphological structures. Additionally, Kukulcania isolinae Alayón is synonymized with Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz), and new records of its distribution are included for the Greater and Lesser Antilles.
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