Abstract
A new genus and species, Iraponia scutata, are established for the first members of the Caponiidae to be found in Iran. Males of this new genus, the second known from Asia, are unique in the family in having an extensive ventral abdominal scutum, and in having lost the posterior median pair of spinnerets. These caponiids have six eyes, a character shared only with some members of the New World genus Caponina.
Highlights
Members of the spider family Caponiidae have only recently been discovered in Asia
The genus Laoponia was established by Platnick and Jager (2008) for a species from Laos, and congeneric specimens have since been found in Vietnam (Shuqiang Li, personal commun.)
As with the three other caponiid genera known from the Old World (Caponia Simon, found from Ethiopia to South Africa; Diploglena Purcell, known only from South Africa and Namibia; and Laoponia), the Iranian specimens have entire, rather than subsegmented, tarsi, and are placed in the subfamily Caponiinae, a presumably basal group whose mem¬ bers are united only by the absence of the many bizarre leg modifications found in members of the New World subfamily Nopinae
Summary
Members of the spider family Caponiidae have only recently been discovered in Asia. The genus Laoponia was established by Platnick and Jager (2008) for a species from Laos, and congeneric specimens have since been found in Vietnam (Shuqiang Li, personal commun.).In this paper, the seventh in a series on caponiids, we report on the first specimens of the family to be collected in Iran. 19, 26-28), the Iranian species resembles only some members of the New World caponiine genus Caponina In males of Iraponia the posterior median spinnerets seem to have been lost entirely The female genitalic system of Iraponia resembles that of the Californian Calponia harrisonfordi
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