NEW SPECIES OF AGORIUS THORELL, 1877 (ARANEAE: SALTICIDAE) FROM NEW GUINEA

The genus Agorius was described by THORELL (1887) with Agorius gracilipes as type-species, an “ant-like salticid” from Celebes. Later SIMON added several new species (SIMON 1901b: A. cinctus, A. constrictus, A. semirufus; SIMON 1903: A. formicinus), and separated the genus as a group called Agorieae in his monograph of spiders “Histoire naturelle des Araignees” (SIMON 1901a) from all other jumping spiders. He mentioned the resemblance to Diolenius and Myrmarachne during the discussion of Agorius’s relationships, according to him Agorius is somewhere between these genera (“Les Agorius rappellent a certains egards les Diolenius et les Myrmarachne...” p. 534.; “Les pattes de la 1re paire ... rappellent un peu elles des Diolenius...” p. 536). BADCOCK (1918) found Agorius gracilipes THORELL, 1877 again (in Malaya), but neither the drawing nor the description is sufficient to validate his identification, and moreover his specimen seems to be lost (“I couldn’t find BADCOCK’s specimen in the collection of British Museum (N. H.), where it should be kept.” (PROSZYNSKI 1968, p. 223)). However, based on BADCOCK's drawings (first leg, female habitus, sternum and coxae) it belongs to Agorius. The type specimen of the genus was redescribed by PROSZYNSKI (1968). Now the genus has 6 nominal species (A. bornensis EDMUNDS et PROSZYNSKI, 2001 was described recently), but many (“dozens of”) species are waiting for their discovery (J. PROSZYNSKI, C. DEELEMAN-REINHOLD pers. comm.) from various localities (Borneo: Sarawak, Sabah; Sumatra, Singapore, Java, Sumbawa, Sulawesi and Ambon – C. DEELEMAN-REINHOLD pers. comm.). Several of them were illustrated by PROSZYNSKI, and his drawings are available online (PROSZYNSKI