Two New Ant-Eating Spider in the Genus Mallinella Strand, 1906 (Araneae: Zodariidae) from Tingloy Island, Batangas, Philippinesa

Abstract

Two new species from the genus Mallinella Strand, 1906 (Zodariidae) were collected from Barangay Sto. Tomas of the island municipality of Tingloy, Batangas, Philippines from January to June 2018 through the use of pitfall traps. Male and female genitalia of Mallinella tingloy n. sp. and Mallinella marikaban n. sp. were observed and documented in details including their specific posterior ventral spines (PVS), a shared character among Mallinella spiders. This faunistic exploration and inventory of Zodariidae revealed that Mallinella tingloy n. sp. and Mallinella marikaban n. sp. are the sixth and seventh Mallinella species collected and recorded in the Philippines, respectively, and the first recorded species of Mallinella in the province of Batangas and in the island municipality of Tingloy. The new taxa are hereby described and photographs are provided to facilitate species identification. Diagnosis of each species is summarized herewith: Mallinella marikaban n. sp. is a member of the hilaris-group and it runs close to M. acanthoclada Dankittipakul, Jocqué & Singtripop, 2012 found in Thailand, but the new species from the Philippines can be distinguished from the latter by its distinct thick and sclerotized embolus with bifurcated tip and a “mouthlike” epigynum with a pair of spherical widely spaced spermatheca. Mallinella tingloy n. sp., on the other hand, belongs to the annulipes-group and runs close to M. calilungae (Barrion & Litsinger, 1992) found in the Philippines, and can be distinguished from the latter with the presence of long and broad embolus with deep longitudinal groove and a sclerotized, lip-like epigynum with widely-spaced longitudinal spermatheca with globular tip.