A new and undescribed Myrmarachne sp. from Karnataka (Araneae: Salticidae: Myrmarachnina)

Peckhamia 283.1 Myrmarachne from Karnataka 1 PECKHAMIA 283.1, 4 November 2022, 1―5 ISSN 2161―8526 (print) LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:CB27D636-5C76-4EB5-B95E-929F3C34F922 (registered 31 OCT 2022) ISSN 1944―8120 (online) A new and undescribed Myrmarachne sp. from Karnataka (Araneae: Salticidae: Myrmarachnina) 1 David E. Hill 2 and Abhijith A. P. C. 3 1Detailed attribution for images that appear in figures is given in Appendix 1. All images have been edited or modified by the author. This paper may be freely copied, posted or redistributed under the terms of a CC BY NC 4.0 license, provided that the owners of respective images and other content are properly attributed in any derived work. 2213 Wild Horse Creek Drive, Simpsonville SC 29680, USA, email [email protected] 3Indraprastha Organic Farm, Kalalwadi Village, Udboor Post, Mysuru-570008, Karnataka, India, email [email protected] The ant-mimicking jumping spider Myrmarachne plataleoides (O. Pickard-Cambridge 1869) is widely distributed in tropical south and southeast Asia, well-known for its association with the Asian weaver (or green tree) ant, Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius 1775 (Figures 1, 2.5-6, 3.5-6). Figure 1. Distribution of Myrmarachne plataleoides in tropical Asia, based on verified records reported in iNaturalist (white circles). Each circle represents one or more records. Yellow circles represent the location of (1) a recent report of a black form of M. plataleoides by Kumar, Gupta & Sharma (2022), and (2) the black form that we report here that we consider to represent a different and new species. The solid green line at top represents the northernmost distribution of the Asian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina. The background relief map shown here is in the public domain (CC0), courtesy of maps-for-free (https://maps-for-free.com). 1000 km 1000 km 1 2 Peckhamia 283.1 Myrmarachne from Karnataka 2 Figure 2. Comparison of a new Myrmarachne sp. recently found at Uduvekodi, private farm, Sullia in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka (1-4) with the well-known M. plataleoides (5-6). Attribution and ©: 5, Harikrishnan S; 6, Roman Prokhorov. 5. ♂Myrmarachne plataleoides (O. Pickard-Cambridge 1869) Kannammoola, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 8 JUN 2021 6. ♀Myrmarachne plataleoides Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, 7 FEB 2020 1. ♂Myrmarachne sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 3. ♂Myrmarachne sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 2. ♂Myrmarachne sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 4. ♀Myrmarachne sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 Peckhamia 283.1 Myrmarachne from Karnataka 3 Figure 3. Ant associates of Myrmarachne jumping spiders in India. 1-2, Polyrhachis (subgenus Myrmhopla) ants found with the new Myrmarachne from Sullia. 3-4, Ground-nesting Indian black ants (Camponotus compressus), a species found with the black form of M. plataleoides recently described by Kumar, Gupta & Sharma (2022). 5-6, Group activities of Asian weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), a species usually found with M. plataleoides. Attribution and ©: 3, Soumendra Mukhopadhyay; 4, Girish Gowda; 5, paulmckenzie; 6, budak. 2. Polyrhachis, subgenus Myrmhopla sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 1. Polyrhachis, subgenus Myrmhopla sp. Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 5. Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius 1775 Si Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong, 10 MAY 2022 6. Oecophylla smaragdina Singapore, 2 JAN 2017 3. Camponotus compressus (Fabricius 1787) Khargar, Mahrashtra, 23 MAY 2015 4. Camponotus compressus Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, 18 FEB 2022 Peckhamia 283.1 Myrmarachne from Karnataka 4 Here we report a new Myrmarachne from Uduvekodi, private farm, Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka (Figure 2.1-4), clearly related to M. plataleoides but also distinct from that species. These spiders were found on sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) leaves on a plant that was full of black Polyrhachis ants (Figure 3.1-2). Curiously, sapodilla is a native of southern Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. These Polyrachis are weaver ants, like Oecophylla, and they also build their nests by joining adjacent leaves together. O. smaragdina were also found in the area. ProIszynIski (2016) recently separated several Myrmarachne into a new genus, Myrmaplatys. Of the species that he transferred to this genus only one, M. plataleoides, has been reported from India (Kumar, Gupta & Sharma 2022; WSC 2022). Although similar in shape to M. plataleoides, the new Myrmarachne sp. from Sullia differs by its color and setation, and its association with black Polyrhachis ants. There are other differences that may be more significant. The distal half of each paturon of the male Myrmarachne sp. is inflated. Significant less than half of the paturon of the male M. plataleoides is inflated. The carapace of the male and female of this Myrmarachne species is considerable wider than in M. plataleoides. This is particularly evident when one compares the narrow thoracic region of the carapace of the female M. plataleoides to the wider, rounded thoracic region of the female Myrmarachne sp. We have not examined the genitalia of this species, but experience with other salticids (e.g. Maratus) has shown that even the detailed structure of genitalia is not always a reliable indicator of species. In their description of a black form of M. plataleoides that associated with a different species, the grounddwelling ant Camponotus compressus (Figure 3.3-4) at the Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary in Jharkand, India, Kumar, Gupta & Sharma (2022) provided illustrations of the genitalia that agree favorably with earlier descriptions of M. plataleoides. The association of this species with a ground-dwelling ant that is completely different from O. smaragdina is certainly unusual. In addition, from their published figures, fully ½ of each paturon of the males that they found was inflated, more like our Myrmarachne sp. than M. plataleoides, where only the distal ⅖ of each paturon is inflated. This suggests that more study of these spiders is in order. The ant associates of the earlier stages of Myrmarachne plataleoides need more study. The early instars of M. plataleoides are quite different from the adults (Figure 4). Although they are not known to associate with these ants, they have been reported to resemble either the tropical fire ant Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius 1804), or the yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes F. Smith 1857; by the 5th instar, however, they resemble Oecophylla smaragdina workers in both size and coloration (Bhattacharya 1936, 1937; Marson 1946). Figure 4. Early instars of Myrmarachne plataleoides in Karnataka. 1-2, Emergent (instar II) spiders. 3, Later immature. 123 Peckhamia 283.1 Myrmarachne from Karnataka 5 Acknowledgments Thanks to Mr. Bharavi U and shreeraksha Bhat of Uduvekodi farm. References Bhattacharya, G. C. 1936. On the moulting and metamorphosis of Myrmarachne plataleoides. Transactions of the Bose Research Institute, Calcutta 12. Bhattacharya, G. C. 1937. Notes on the moulting process of the spider (Myrmarachne plataleoides, Camb.). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39: 426-430. Kumar, R., B. K. Gupta and A. K. Sharma. 2022. On the behavioural biology of a morpho-variant of Myrmaplata plataleoides (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) (Araneae: Salticidae) with taxonomic notes. Animal Biology, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, DOI 10.1163/15707563-bja10094: 1-25. Marson, J. E. 1946. The ant mimic Myrmarachne plataleoides. Journal of the East African Natural History Society 19: 62-63, plate VI. Prószyński, J. 2016. Delimitation and description of 19 new genera, a subgenus and a species of Salticidae (Araneae) of the world. Ecologica Montenegrina 7: 4-32. WSC. 2022. World Spider Catalog. Version 23.5. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch, accessed on 29 OCT 2022. doi: 10.24436/2 Appendix 1. Detailed attribution for images by figure. All photographs have been modified (cropped and/or edited) from their original format. terms of use description of license or permission link CC BY 4.0 Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC BY-NC 4.0 Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ with permission permission granted by copyright holder Figure subject © attributed to link terms of use 1 distribution map for Myrmarachne plataleoides David E. Hill CC BY 4.0 2.1-2.4 Myrmarachne sp., Sullia, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 Abhijith with permission 2.5 ♂Myrmarachne plataleoides, Kannammoola, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 8 JUN 2021 Harikrishnan S https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82174071 CC BY-NC 4.0 2.6 ♀Myrmarachne plataleoides, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, 7 FEB 2020 Roman Prokhorov https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38536699 CC BY-NC 4.0 3.1-3.2 Polyrhachis, subgenus Myrmhopla sp., Sullia, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka, 24 SEP 2022 Abhijith with permission 3.3 Camponotus compressus, Khargar, Mahrashtra, 23 MAY 2015 Soumendra Mukhopadhyay https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1531615 CC BY-NC 4.0 3.4 Camponotus compressus, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, 18 FEB 2022 Girish Gowda https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113168631 CC BY-NC 4.0 3.5 Oecophylla smaragdina, Si Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong, 10 MAY 2022 paulmckenzie https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116666970 CC BY-NC 4.0 3.6 Oecophylla smaragdina, Singapore, 2 JAN 2017 budak https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4886526 CC BY-NC 4.0 4.1-4.3 immature Myrmarachne plataleoides, Karnataka Abhijith with permission