Project description:A new fossil species of salticid spider (Araneae: Salticidae) is described based on an amber-embedded specimen. The specimen was collected from lignite-sandstone early-mid Miocene sediments near the town of Totolapa in Chiapas, southwestern Mexico. The diagnosis and description is supported by key characters that best match the genus Maevia Koch, 1846. Thus, this new fossil species has been named Maevia eureka nov. sp. This fossil shows closer affinities in epygine traits with extant specimens grouped around the species Maevia poultoni Peckham & Peckham, 1901. This represents the first known fossil species within Maevia and the southernmost record of the genus in North America that shows Nearctic relationships.
Project description:Phylogenomic analysis and revised classification of atypoid mygalomorph spiders (Araneae, Mygalomorphae), with notes on arachnid ultraconserved element loci