All nominal species of Pionothele have been collected from dune ecosystems, coastal and desert environments.[5]
Description
The South African genus Pionothele Purcell, 1902 is a poorly known member of the family Pycnothelidae. Body size ranges from 8-14 mm. The carapace is oval to broad-oval and hirsute, with the cephalic region slightly to noticeably elevated over the thoracic part. The thoracic fovea is short, transverse, and more or less straight. There are eight eyes on a raised eye tubercle that are well defined and close to the clypeal edge. The labium lacks cuspules while the endites have few cuspules. The rastellum has moderately stout setae.[5]
The abdomen is oval and spotted. The posterior spinnerets are stout with the apical segment domed. The tarsus IV is spined, the third claw on anterior legs is reduced, and the paired claws are long and biseriate. In males, leg I is medially swollen with a slender tibia. All nominal species of Pionothele have been collected from dune ecosystems, coastal and desert environments.[5]
Taxonomy
The genus was transferred from Ctenizidae to Nemesiidae by Raven (1985) and subsequently to Pycnothelidae by Opatova et al. (2020). In Zonstein's (2016) review of the genus, he redescribed and illustrated P. straminea Purcell, 1902 and described a second, new species P. capensis Zonstein, 2016. However, P. capensis was later synonymized with Hermacha brevicauda by Ríos-Tamayo, Engelbrecht & Goloboff in 2021, transferring it to the family Entypesidae. According to Bond and Lamb (2019), Pionothele may be more widespread and diverse than is currently known.[5]
Species
As of September2025[update], this genus includes two species:[1]
↑ Raven, R. J. (1985). "The spider infraorder Mygalomorphae (Araneae): Cladistics and systematics". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 182: 93.
1 2 3 4 Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S.; Haddad, C.R.; Foord, S.H.; Lotz, L.N. (2021). The Pycnothelidae of South Africa. Version 1. South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide. p.6.This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
↑ Ríos-Tamayo, D.; Engelbrecht, I.; Goloboff, P. A. (2021). "A revision of the genus Hermacha Simon, 1889 (Mygalomorphae: Entypesidae), in southern Africa with revalidation of Hermachola Hewitt, 1915, and Brachytheliscus Pocock, 1902". American Museum Novitates. 3977: 1–80. doi:10.1206/3977.1.
Further reading
Zonstein, S. L. (2016). "New data on the spider genus Pionothele (Araneae: Nemesiidae), with description of a new species from South Africa". Israel Journal of Entomology. 46: 31–42.
Tucker, R. W. E. (1917). "On some South African Aviculariidae (Arachnida). Families Migidae, Ctenizidae, Diplotheleae and Dipluridae". Annals of the South African Museum. 17: 79–138.
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