Description of a new tracheline spider, Trachelas mombachensis sp. n., in the T. bispinosus species group from the Mombacho Volcano in Nicaragua (Araneae: Trachelidae).

Trachelas L. Koch, 1872 is a large and diverse genus of sac spiders, originally placed in the family Drassidae Koch. Simon (1897) transferred Trachelas to the family Clubionidae Wagner, 1887 in the Tracheleae group Karsch, 1880, under the subfamily Corinninae Karsch, 1880. Corinninae was elevated to family rank by Lehtinen (1967). Lehtinen (1967) did not refer to the Trachelineae group in that publication; however, in a later publication he refers to the family Trachelidae, without justification for family elevation (Lehtinen 1996). Therefore, Trachelinae remained a subfamily of Corinnidae Karsch, 1880 until 2014 when it was elevated to family rank by Ramírez (2014). The genus Trachelas contains eighty-two described species with a nearly worldwide distribution, except Australia and New Zealand. A majority, fifty-nine species, occur in the Americas and surrounding islands (World Spider Catalog, 2014). The North and Central American Trachelas were revised in two papers by Platnick and Shadab (1974a, b) separating them into four distinct species groups. In their classification, the T. bispinosus F.O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899 species group comprises nine described species in North and Central America. The tenth species of the group, T. mombachensis sp. n., is described here from 12 specimens (6 ♂, 6 ♀). Due to the diversity seen in the morphology and the extent of the distribution in the genus Trachelas it has been proposed that this genus is not monophyletic, and New World representatives are most likely not con-generic with the type species, T. minor O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 (Platnick & Ewing 1995; Grismado 2004; Bosselaers et al. 2009; Bosselaers & Bosmans 2010). Resolution of this problem is beyond the scope of this project.