Taxonomic review and cladistic analysis of Neotropical spider genus Epicratinus Jocqué & Baert, 2005 (Araneae: Zodariidae) with description of eleven new species

Abstract

A taxonomic revision and phylogenetic analysis of the spider genus Epicratinus Jocqué & Baert, 2005 is presented. The phylogenetic analysis is based on a data set including 16 Epicratinus species plus 9 outgroups representing by five related zodariid gen­era and one of them considered most basal as the root. These taxa were scored for 49 morphological characters. Parsimony was used as the op­timality criterion and a sensitivity analysis was performed using different character weighting concavities. Five unambiguous synapomorphies support the monophyly of Epicratinus. Some internal clades within the genus are well-supported and their relationships are discussed. Epicratinus includes 16 species, all with males and females. A species identification key and distribution maps are provided for all. New morphological data are also pre­sented for five previously described species. All 16 species occur only in the New World. The following species are transferred to Epicratinus: E. perfidus (Jocqué & Baert), comb. nov. from Tenedos; Epicratinus perfidus Jocqué & Baert comb. nov. and newly synonymized with E. santacruz Grismado & Izquierdo and this last species is treated as the junior synonym. Epicratinus petropolitanus (Mello-Leitão) has the male described for the first time. The following 11 species are newly described as new: E. zangief sp. nov.; E. pegasus sp. nov.; E. pikachu sp. nov.; E. stitch sp. nov.; E. ehonda sp. nov.; E. anakin sp. nov.; E. vader sp. nov.; E. omegarugal sp. nov.; E. zelda sp. nov.; E. dookan sp. nov. and E. mauru sp. nov., all from Brazil.