''Pimoa cthulhu'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of the

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Pimoidae Pimoidae is a small family of araneomorph spiders first described by J. Wunderlich in 1986. As re-circumscribed in 2021, it is monophyletic, and contained 85 species in two genera. It is closely related to the Linyphiidae, and is sometimes treat ...

. It is one of twenty-one described species in the genus '' Pimoa''.

Etymology

''Pimoa'' is derived from the language of the Gosiute people in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and means "big legs". Gustavo Hormiga, who named the species, derived the specific name from H. P. Lovecraft's fictional deity

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pan ...

, which Hormiga writes is "akin to the powers of Chaos".

Distribution

The range of ''Pimoa cthulhu'' is restricted to areas of Mendocino and Sonoma counties in western

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Within that range the species is associated with

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

forestland habitats such as redwood stumps and logs.

Type specimens

Four specimens of ''Pimoa cthulhu'' were collected and used in the 1994

type description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

authored by Gustavo Hormiga of the Department of Entomology at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

. Gustavo Hormiga chose a male specimen collected from the southern end of the Mendocino Woodlands State Park from a hollow redwood stump in September 1990 as

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

. One of the two female

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

s was also from a hollow redwood stump in the Mendocino Woodlands. Both specimens were collected by Darrell Ubick of the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

. Two more paratypes, another male and a second female, were collected from the camp in Mendocino Woodlands in February 1979 and February 1973 respectively by S. C. Williams. The holotype and three paratypes are currently housed in the collections of the California Academy of Sciences, while the fourth paratype is in Darrell Ubick's private collection.

Description

Male ''Pimoa cthulhu'' are distinguishable from related species by the unique cluster of thick spines found on the cymbial projection. Female ''P. cthulhu'' are very similar to the related species '' P. vera'', but are distinguishable by the long sausage-like epigynum which is narrower and laterally compressed at the distal end. Males of ''P. cthulhu'' have a

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

length which ranges from while females range from . Both males and females are very similar in coloration, with a light to very light brown cephalothorax that is slightly darker towards the margins and an abdomen that is dark gray with four dorsal whitish spots. The males have a brown sternum, while in the females the sternum is reddish brown. While the females have legs which are dark reddish, the male legs are covered in long

setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

instead.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pimoa Cthulhu Pimoidae Spiders described in 1994 Spiders of the United States Endemic fauna of California Fauna without expected TNC conservation status