Cubanops

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Cubanops
Cubanops alayoni female (left) and male (right), Cuba
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Caponiidae
Genus: Cubanops
Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010
Species

see article

Diversity
11 species

Distinctive group of relatively small spider caponiids species known only from the West Indies. The genus currently counts 11 extant species, but probably the real number is greater. Most species are very small (4–10 mm body length), and are very difficult to finding in the nature. They are wandering hunters, preferably found at ground level, under stones, in leaf litter or in the soil. Although the records of Cubanops are only from the Bahama Islands, Cuba, and Hispaniola, a few females juvenile specimens sharing the somatic characters of the genus have been taken on St. John, suggesting that Cubanops probably occurs in Puerto Rico as well as the Virgin Islands.[1]

Species

Cubanops Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010

  • Cubanops alayoni Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops andersoni ánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Bahama Is.
  • Cubanops armasi Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops bimini Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Bahama Is.
  • Cubanops darlingtoni (Bryant, 1948) — Hispaniola
  • Cubanops granpiedra Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops juragua Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops ludovicorum (Alayón, 1976) — Cuba
  • Cubanops terueli Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops tortuguilla Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Cuba
  • Cubanops vega Sánchez-Ruiz, Platnick & Dupérré, 2010 — Hispaniola

Monophyly

Cubanops is a nopinae genus (i.e., have subsegmeted tarsi). These West Indian spiders show two other unusual leg characters that are often found in nopine genera: the ventral translucent keel on the anterior metatarsi, and the translucent extension of the membrane between the anterior metatarsi and tarsi. However, these species differ from the other nopines with these leg modifications in having a distinctively patterned carapace, a greatly widened labium, and a bisegmented metatarsi IV. Two species groups are recognized within the genus: ludovicorum group, with the embolus relatively short and wide, and the female receptaculum relatively low. alayoni group, with the embolus relatively long and narrow, and the female receptaculum relatively high (see Sánchez-Ruiz et al. 2010).

Image gallery

  • Cubanops ludovicorum Alayon, female

  • Cubanops terueli Sánchez-Ruiz et al., male and female

  • Cubanops tortuguilla Sánchez-Ruiz et al., female

  • Cubanops granpiedra Sánchez-Ruiz et al., internal genitalia

  • Cubanops granpiedra Sánchez-Ruiz et al., male palp

  • Cubanops darlingtoni Bryant, female

  • Cubanops darlingtoni Bryant, sternum

References

  1. ↑ Sánchez-Ruiz, A., N.I. Platnick, and N. Dupérré (2010). A new genus of the spider family Caponiidae (Araneae, Haplogynae) from the West Indies. American Museum Novitates 3705: 1–44.
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