The first species of the spider genus Episinus in Colombia (Araneae, Theridiidae).

The spider family Theridiidae Sundevall, 1833 is currently represented by 121 genera and 2,387 species distributed worldwide (Platnick, 2014), of which 52 genera are recorded in the Neotropical region. The genus Episinus Latreille, 1809 has 57 described species but only 29 (50.8%) are known by both sexes (Platnick, 2014). The type species of the genus, E. truncatus Latreille, 1809, was described from Italy. The last taxonomic of Episinus from the Neotropical region was made by Levi (1955), who proposed 26 species for this region. Levi (1964; 1967) and Buckup & Marques (1992) increased to 37 the number of Neotropical species. Later, 13 species were removed from Episinus, where seven species were transferred to the genus Neopisinus (Marques et al., 2011) and six species to the genus Janula (Yoshida & Koh, 2011). Currently, 24 species have been recorded from the Neotropical region, almost 40% of the known species in the world. In an expedition to Colombia in 2011, our colleague Jimmy Cabra García collected twenty-one individuals of a species of Episinus that was presumed to be an undescribed species, which is described and illustrated in this study. Despite the absence of a global revisionary work on this genus, the description of the new species is justified because the species distinct from all others in the genus and to our knowledge is the first species of Episinus recorded from Colombia. All measurements (in millimeters) were made using a Leica MZ12 stereomicroscope. Male and female genitalia were examined and illustrated using a Zeiss Axioscop optic microscope with a drawing tube and micrometric oculars. Digital multi-focal photos were taken using a Leica DFC 500 digital camera attached to a Leica MZ16A stereomicroscope. The photographs were assembled using the program Leica Application Suite Version 3.3.0. For expansion and examination of the male palp, we followed Shear (1967). The epigynum was digested for scanning electron microscope (SEM) using Ultrazyme® enzymatic eye lens cleaner and then cleaned ultrasonically. The male palp was cleaned ultrasonically and together with the female genitalia was gradually dehydrated through immersion in increasingly concentrated (from 80 to 96%) ethanol throughout approximately 24 hours. Images were taken using a FEI Quanta 250 SEM at the Laboratório de Biologia Celular (Instituto Butantan). The nomenclature for female genitalia and structures of the male palp follow Levi (1955) and Agnarsson et al. (2007). Abbreviations: AME anterior median eyes; TTA theridiid tegular apophysis; C conductor; E embolus; MA median apophysis; FD fertilization duct; CD copulatory duct. The material examined is deposited in the collection of Instituto Butantan, São Paulo (IBSP, A.D. Brescovit) and Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Bogotá (ICN, E. Flórez).