A new species of Linothele Karsch, 1879 (Araneae: Dipluridae) from south-eastern Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract We describe a new species of Linothele Karsch, 1879 from the south-eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador. The new species can be distinguished from all congeners by the presence of abundant bright whitish-golden curly setae on the carapace; a patternless grey abdomen in adults, with short whitish-golden setae, short black setae and long and erected black setae, and lacking maculae; the elongate and apically tapered spermatheca with 3–5 elongated vesicles placed medially; the prominent metatarsal tubercle and tibial megaspine in leg I in the male, and the male palpal bulb longer than wide, with flattened apical part of the embolus. We comment on the bulb morphology and ontogenetic colour variation of Linothele and discuss the distribution of some Linothele from the eastern Andes and Amazonian lowlands.