Abstract
The current paper expands knowledge of two Chinese cave spider species originally described in the genus Maymena Gertsch, 1960: M. paquini Miller, Griswold & Yin, 2009 and M. kehen Miller, Griswold & Yin, 2009. With the exception of these two species, the genus Maymena is endemic to the western hemisphere, and new evidence presented here supports the creation of a new genus for the Chinese species, which we name Yamanetagen. nov. The male of Y. kehen is described for the first time. Detailed illustrations of the habitus, male palps and epigyne are provided for these two species, as well as descriptions of their webs. DNA sequences are provided for both Yamaneta species. We build on a previously published phylogenetic analysis of Mysmenidae to assess the phylogenetic position of Yamaneta and its relationship to true Maymena.
Highlights
The genus Maymena Gertsch, 1960 was established in the context of a taxonomic paper describing several American spiders of the family Symphytognathidae Hickman, 1931
The world’s Symphytognathidae were reviewed and redefined by Forster and Platnick (1977), and several symphytognathid genera were transferred to other families, including Maymena to the Mysmenidae
Attempts based on morphological data (e.g., Griswold et al 1998) proposed a “symphytognathoid” clade composed of monophyletic families, but Schütt (2003) warned that some of this could be based on a syndrome of parallel reductions and simplifications related to the evolution of small size
Summary
The genus Maymena Gertsch, 1960 was established in the context of a taxonomic paper describing several American spiders of the family Symphytognathidae Hickman, 1931. Gertsch’s (1960) original description included observations of several characteristics of Maymena but did not provide diagnostic characters for separating the genus from its close relatives. The world’s Symphytognathidae were reviewed and redefined by Forster and Platnick (1977), and several symphytognathid genera were transferred to other families, including Maymena to the Mysmenidae. It was not until the recent publication of Lopardo and Hormiga (2015) that a rigorous and convincing diagnosis of Maymena was published
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