Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958, from the family Gnaphosidae, is recorded from Egypt (Sadat City), and thereby the African continent, for the first time. The record, originating from a drip-irrigated pomegranate orchard, is based only on male specimens. It is the fourth recorded species of the genus Minosiella Dalmas, 1921 in Egypt. Diagnostic drawings and images of the copulatory organs are presented together with a depiction of the habitat.
The Gnaphosidae Banks, 1892 are a species-rich spider family currently containing 2576 species in 164 genera (World Spider Catalog 2021). The last Egyptian checklist included 47 species from 20 genera (El-Hennawy 2017). Minosiella Dalmas, 1921 is a small genus of Gnaphosinae spiders comprising only seven accepted species (World Spider Catalog 2021). The genus Minosiella was established by Dalmas (1921) for M. mediocris Dalmas, 1921 from Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria. This genus is currently represented by three species in Egypt, M. mediocris Dalmas, 1921, M. pallida (L. Koch, 1875) (but see “comments”) and M. pharia Dalmas, 1921 (El-Hennawy 2017, El-Hennawy et al. 2021). Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958 is a little-known species, with only a few records from Central Asia and Iran (World Spider Catalog 2021). The aim of the present paper is to report the recently revealed presence of M. intermedia in Sadat City, Egypt, thus also representing the first report of the species from Africa. Based on the available material, the characteristic features of the male are described and illustrated. This new record adds a further species to the still insufficiently studied spider fauna of Egypt.
Material and methods
This study is based on specimens collected in Egypt, Menoufiya, Sadat City. All material is preserved in 75% ethanol and deposited at the Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Egypt. Specimens were photographed using a ToupCam S3CMOS microscope camera attached to an OPTIKA SZM-2 Stereomicroscope. The identification of M. intermedia is based on the descriptions, drawings and photographs in Marusik & Kovblyuk (2009). One male pedipalp was removed for the study. Terminology follows Dippenaar-Schoeman & Jocqué (2006). The map was created by using Shorthouse (2010) and the records with localities given in Denis (1958), Ovtsharenko (1992), Marusik & Kovblyuk (2009), Krivokhatskii & Fet (1982) and Zamani et al. (2014, 2017).
New record for Egypt and Africa
Minosiella intermedia Denis, 1958 (Figs 1-3)
Material examined. EGYPT: Menoufiya, Sadat City, Al-Azhar University, 2 ♂♂, 19. Feb. 2018, found on the ground of a pomegranate farm (Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, 30.4208°N, 30.5429°E), 30 m a.s.l, leg. Amr El-Gendy (hand collecting).
Description of male. General appearance as in Fig. 1; total length 3.93–4.02 mm (for further measurements see Tab. 1); carapace longer than wide; with narrow, distinct fovea; orange-yellow to bright yellow-brown (Fig. 1); chelicerae brown. Sternum light brown to pale yellowish; covered with hairs. Legs light brown; clothed with hairs and spines; fourth pair of legs longest, second pair shortest (for measurements see Tab. 2); leg formula 4, 1, 3, 2; two tarsal claws; opisthosoma elongated oval, greyish-brown (Fig. 1). Eyes large, closely grouped, with black circles; the eyes in two transverse curved rows; anterior eye row more curved, the posterior eye row nearly straight; anterior median eyes dark; posterior median eyes oblique and converge posteriorly (Fig. 1). Male palp as in Figs 2-3, embolus long, in basal part with membranous outgrowth; cymbium with thick spines. Male palpal tibia with simple, slender, and nearly straight tibial apophysis.
Habitat. The specimens studied were found on the ground of a drip-irrigated pomegranate orchard next to the tree trunks (Fig. 4). Other records of M. intermedia were from rodent burrows (Denis 1958, Krivokhatskii & Fet 1982) and from an abandoned clay construction (Denis 1958).
Distribution. Minosiella intermedia has been recorded from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran (World Spider Catalog 2021). This is the first record of this species from Egypt and, consequently, the African continent (Fig. 5).
Comments. Minosiella intermedia is very similar to M. pallida, which was described from Northeast Africa (“Hamaszen” = Eritrea/Ethiopia; Koch (1875)). Marusik & Kovblyuk (2009) suspected that M. pallida and M. intermedia might be synonyms. However, while the male of M. pallida is not sufficiently known, the epigynal foveae of the two species seem to differ in the width of the posterior part. Marusik & Kovblyuk (2009) also described an outgrowth on the distal part of the femora in M. intermedia (Fig. 2d). This seems to be absent in the drawings of the male pedipalp available from descriptions of M. pallida (Simon 1882, Dalmas 1921). Recently, El-Hennawy et al. (2021) published an Egyptian record supposed to constitute M. pallida. While the images of the males (El-Hennawy et al. 2021, figs 8-9; cf. fig. 2 and fig. 4 in Marusik & Kovblyuk 2009) apparently show the femoral character of M. intermedia, the females (El-Hennawy et al. 2021, figs 12-15) are not easily assigned to one of both species. Only a re-examination of type material of M. pallida will clarify the situation and help to decide whether both species are indeed synonyms.
Tab. 1:
Measurements of Minosiella intermedia, CL = carapace length, CW = carapace width, OL = opisthosoma length, OW = opisthosoma width, TL = total length
Tab. 2:
Measurements of leg segments of Minosiella intermedia
Fig. 2.
Male pedipalp of Minosiella intermedia from Egypt. a. retrolateral view; b. ventral view; c. prolateral view; d. retrolateral view of palpal segments. FO = femoral outgrowth
Fig. 3.
Male pedipalp of Minosiella intermedia (spines broken off). a. ventral view; b. retrolateral view
Fig. 5.
Map of the known records of Minosiella intermedia. Square = record in this paper, triangle = possible Egyptian record (sub. Minosiella pallida Dalmas, 1921) in El-Hennawy et al. (2021), circles = records from the literature
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Hisham K. El-Hennawy, Egyptian arachnologist (editor of SERKET), for great help, encouragement, support and for his assistance in confirming the identity of the species. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the editor, Tobias Bauer, for his kind help, generous guidance and invaluable review. Special thanks to Mykola Kovblyuk for help with literature and advice. Sincere thanks go to Robert Bosmans and Simeon Indzhov (reviewers) for their valuable comments and corrections that improved the paper.
