Arachnologische Mitteilungen 55

Arachnologische Mitteilungen / Arachnology Letters 55: 22-24 Karlsruhe, April 2018 Movile Cave is located near the town of Mangalia in sou- theastern Romania, at a distance of two kilometers from the Black Sea shore. It was discovered in 1986 when a 20 m deep artificial shaft intercepted a natural cave passage developed in Sarmatian limestones (12.5 MY).The lower sections of Mo- vile Cave are flooded by thermomineral water (21 °C) rich in reduced chemical compounds such as H 2 S, CH 4 and NH 4 + . The redox interface created at the water surface between these reduced substances and the oxygen in the cave’s atmosphere enables chemoautrophic microorganisms to thrive here crea- ting organic molecules in situ (Sarbu et al. 1996). These re- present the food base for a rich and abundant community of aquatic and terrestrial troglobitic invertebrate species, the ma- jority of which are endemic to this ecosystem (Sarbu 2000). To date, 30 new species of aquatic and terrestrial arth- ropods have been described from Movile Cave (Sarbu 2000, Nitzu et al. 2016). Three endemic spiders have so far been described from this ecosystem: Agraecina cristiani (Georges- cu, 1989), Hahnia caeca (Georgescu & Sarbu, 1992) and Lep­ thyphantes constantinescui Georgescu, 1989. Movile Cave also hosts a very interesting population of Carniella brignolii Tha- ler & Steinberger, 1988, which has adaptations for the sub- terranean environment (Nae 2012), unlike the populations found outside caves in Central and Western Europe (Thaler- Knoflach et al. 2014). The presence of a troglobitic Nesticidae living in Movile Cave was already reported in 1994 but, unfortunately, the new species could not be described then as two out of the three specimens were juveniles and the third was a female without an opisthosoma (Georgescu 1994). Since the cave was disco- vered in 1986, only two additional females have been found (Giurginca et al. 2009). So far our attempts to find males were unsuccessful. The genus Kryptonesticus is new for the Roma- nian fauna; the family Nesticidae is represented by 22 species, belonging to Carpathonesticus and Nesticus . Except Nesticus cellulanus (Clerck, 1757), all species are endemic (Nae 2013). Material and methods This study is based on two females from the Movile Cave, deposited in the following institutions: SMF: Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ISER: Institute of Speleology „Emil Racovitza“, Bucarest, Romania. The specimens were conserved in 70 % ethanol. The dissec- tion was made in glycerol under a Zeiss Stemi 2000 stereo- microscope and mounted for observation in a mixture of ge- latin Merk and anhydrous glycerol. An Olympus CH2 with a drawing attachment was used for microscopic examination and drawings.The photos were made on Zeiss Discovery V8 with Canon A 640 camera. Nomenclature follows the WSC (2017). Terminology for the copulatory organs follows Ló- pez-Pancorbo et al. (2013) and Pavlek & Ribera (2017).Mea- surements are given in millimeters (mm). Taxonomy Family Nesticidae Simon, 1894 Genus Kryptonesticus Pavlek & Ribera, 2017 (type species: K. deelemanae Pavlek & Ribera, 2017) Kryptonesticus georgescuae spec. nov. (Figs 1-6) Typedata. Holotype:1 female (SMF),MovileCave,Mangalia, ROMANIA (geographical coordinates: 43.825N/28.560E), 24 July 1997, leg. Serban M. Sarbu. Paratype: 1 female (ISER, Nr. 5/2017), same locality as holotype, 14-17 March 2008, leg. Augustin Nae. Etymology. The specific name is a patronym in honor of the Romanian arachnologist Maria Georgescu. She described only the prosoma (female) of this species as Nesticus sp. (Georgescu 1994). Diagnosis. Completely eyeless, depigmented, troglobiont spider with long legs; can be recognized by genital characters: epigyne and vulva.The spermatheca form and the position of the medial vulval pockets of this new species resembles that of K. henderickxi (Bosselaers, 1998) and K. beshkovi (Deltshev, 1979), but can be distinguished by the position and orien- tation of insemination ducts (ID in Figs 1 & 4), anteriorly divergent through most of their course, roughly heart-shaped (approximately parallel with a longitudinal axis of symmetry in K. henderickxi and K. beshkovi ) and by the shape of the me- dian septum, which is narrower than that of K. henderickxi . Kryptonesticus georgescuae spec. nov. fromMovile Cave, Romania (Araneae: Nesticidae) Augustin Nae, Serban M. Sarbu & Ingmar Weiss doi: 10.30963/aramit5503 Abstract. Kryptonesticus georgescuae spec. nov., a blind troglobitic spider species from the mesothermal sulfidic Movile Cave (Romania), is described and illustrated based on two female specimens. The male is unknown. The relationship between this new species and other European species of Nesticidae is discussed. Keywords: blind, cave-spider, chemo-autotrophically based ecosystem, endemic, new species, troglobites Zusammenfassung. Kryptonesticus georgescuae spec. nov. aus der Movile-Höhle, Rumänien (Araneae: Nesticidae). Eine blinde, troglobionte Spinnenart aus der mesothermalen Schwefelwasserstoff-Höhle Movile (Rumänien) wird anhand von zwei weiblichen In- dividuen beschrieben und abgebildet. Das Männchen ist unbekannt. Die Beziehung dieser neuen Art zu europäischen Nesticidae wird diskutiert. Augustin NAE, Institute of Speleology„Emil Racovitza“, Calea 13 Septembrie Nr. 13, 050711 Bucuresti, Romania; E-mail: augustin.iser@gmail.com; augustin.nae@iser.ro Serban M. SARBU, California State University, Chico, Department of Biological Sciences, Chico CA 95929-515, Holt Hall 205, USA and Institute of Speleology„Emil Racovitza“, Calea 13 Septembrie Nr. 13, 050711 Bucuresti, Romania; E-mail: serban.sarbu@yahoo.com Ingmar WEISS, Rehtränke 1, 94481 Grafenau, Germany; E-mail: mail@arachnologie.info submitted 13.12.2017, accepted 19.12.2017, online 27.2.2018