ON AMERICAN MICROMERYS AND METAGONIA (ARANEAE, PHOLCIDAE), WITH NOTESON NATURAL-HISTORY AND GENITAL MECHANICS

Two American pholcids previously assigned to Micromerys Bradley are re described and transferred to Metagonia: Me. conica(Simon, 1893) comb. n. (Venezuela), and Me. delicata (Cambridge, 1895) comb. n. (Central A merica). Two close relatives of Me. delicata are newly described: Me. uvita sp. n. and Me. talamanca sp. n. (both from Costa Rica). The name Me. turrialba Gertsch, 1986 is synonymized with Me. rica Gertsch, 198 6 (Costa Pica) which is redescribed. Four additional representatives o f Metagonia are described as new: Me. reventazona sp. n. (Costa Pica, Panama), Me. toro sp. n. (Panama), Me. hitoy sp. n. and Me. hondura sp . n. (Costa Pica). Leptopholcus dalei (Petrunkevitch, 1929) from Puert o Rico, which was originally described as Micromerys dalei, is redescr ibed and its closeness to 'true' Old World Leptopholcus is supported. Arguments are presented to justify the transfer of the American 'Micro merys' species to Metagonia. Notes on the natural history of Me. rica are presented, and a detailed account on copulation and genital mechan ics is given as a basis for future comparison. (C) 1997 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.