First description of the male of the spider Tibellus paraguensis Simon, 1897 (Araneae: Philodromidae), with new distribution records

Abstract

The genus Tibellus Simon, 1875 currently includes 51 species (WSC 2016); it presents some taxonomic difficulties, due to morphological variability, and similarities among some congeners (Efimik 1999). Studies on the genus were undertaken by Gertsch (1933) and Schick (1965) from America, Tikader (1980) from India, Van den Berg & Dippenaar-Schoeman (1994) from the Afrotropical region, and Efimik (1999) from the East Palearctic region. From the Neotropical region six species of Tibellus are known, of which five are represented only by females: T. affinis O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898 (juvenile), T. chilensis Mello Leitão, 1943, T. insularis Gertsch, 1933, T. paraguensis Simon, 1897 and T. spinosus Schiapelli & Gerschman, 1941; and only one, T. duttoni (Hentz, 1847), is known from both sexes (WSC 2016). This demonstrates the incomplete knowledge of a region where new species still can be expected. From Argentina two species are known, T. spinosus and T. paraguensis (CAA 2016). In this paper, the male of T. paraguensis is described for the first time and further illustrations of the female are provided with new geographic records for this species, including the first record from Bolivia.