Revision of the Australian spider genus Habronestes (Araneae: Zodariidae). Species of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory

Abstract

The genus Habronestes L. Koch, 1872 is revised for the species of New South Wales. The genus now contains 28 species Australia-wide, with 23 species recorded from New South Wales. Habronestes bradleyi (Pickard-Cambridge, 1869), Habronestes macedonensis (Hogg, 1900) and Habronestes pictus (L. Koch, 1865), are redescribed and 20 species are newly described as: H. bicornis n.sp., H. driscolli n.sp., H. giganteus n.sp., H. grahami n.sp., H. hebronae n.sp., H. helenae n.sp., H. hamatus n.sp., H. hunti n.sp., H. jocquei n.sp., H. longiconductor n.sp., H. grayi n.sp., H. minor n.sp., H. monocornis n.sp., H. piccolo n.sp., H. pseudoaustraliensis n.sp., H. ungari n.sp., H. raveni n.sp., H. rawlinsonae n.sp., H. weelahensis n.sp., H. wilkiei n.sp. The species are divided between three speciesgroups, according to their eye configuration. A key is provided for the three groups as well as for the species. BAEHR, BARBARA, 2003. Revision of the Australian spider genus Habronestes (Araneae: Zodariidae). Species of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Records of the Australian Museum 55(3): 343–376. Records of the Australian Museum (2003) Vol. 55: 343–376. ISSN 0067-1975 www.amonline.net.au/pdf/publications/1389_complete.pdf This systematic paper provides the first overview of the large, endemic Australian genus Habronestes. As a result of this review, Habronestes now contains 28 species, of which only eight were previously described. This endemic genus is part of the predominantly tropical ant-eating and ant mimicking spider family Zodariidae, one of the most diverse spider families in Australia. They associate with ants and prefer them as food. Studies on Habronestes bradleyi (Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) have shown that these spiders not only mimic the body-shape and behaviour but also the pheromones of ants (Allan et al., 1996). Like ants, Habronestes species are found mainly in semi-arid areas of Australia. The genus contains about 80–100 species of small to medium-sized spiders (2.5–10.5 mm). This paper is the first part of the revision of the entire genus and deals only with the fauna of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Material and methods All descriptions are generated with the aid of Intkey (Dallwitz et al., 1998) and shortened where possible. Epigynes were cleared in lactic acid. Different drawing methods and kinds of paper were experimented with to get best results for showing characters. Schoellershammer Zeichenpapier, 4G, glatt 250g/m, ref. 010915 and Staedtler omnichrom 108, black pencil and black ink Faber-Castel, seems to be the best combination (e.g., compare Figs. 119, 120—drawn with the aforementioned tools—with 117, 118). Drawings were taken from body, right palp, epigyne and vulva. All measurements are in mm. Detailed spination patterns of legs were not given but special (autapomorphic or synapomorphic) spination characters are mentioned. Colour patterns were described from spiders in alcohol. The white abdominal patches, mentioned in the descriptions,