About Sorensenella prehensor Pocock, 1903
Sorensenella prehensor Pocock, 1903 shares all general characteristics of the genus Sorensenella. Forster redescribed the species using a wider range of material than was available to Pocock, and documented the following additional diagnostic traits. The species is reddish brown in color, with a black pattern on the scute, the unsegmented portion of the carapace. Free tergites are blackish, with a transverse row of pale brown spots. The chelicerae and pedipalps have reticulated dorsal markings. Females have more slender pedipalps than males. The tubercles, which are pointed protuberances, behind the anterior corners of the carapace are smaller in females, as is the tubercle that sits on top of the eyemound. The species is divided into three subspecies, which can be distinguished by morphological and geographic traits. The nominate subspecies S. prehensor prehensor can be told apart from S. prehensor nitida by its larger eyemound tubercle, which occurs in both males and females of S. p. prehensor. S. p. nitida is restricted to East Cape, while S. p. prehensor occurs across the northern North Island. In S. p. prehensor, males have larger pedipalps than females. Forster published body measurements for both sexes of this subspecies, but did not add any other descriptive details beyond noting that there is a pair of subequal tubercles behind each anterior corner of the carapace, and the inner tubercle is prominent. The only published illustrations of this subspecies show the male and female eyemounds. S. p. prehensor can be separated from S. p. obesa by the greater size of S. p. obesa, and the slightly backward-pointing orientation of S. p. obesa’s eyemound tubercle. Both subspecies occur at North Cape; S. p. obesa is restricted to an isolated population in the northernmost part of the North Cape region. Overall, Sorensenella prehensor is distributed across the northern North Island of New Zealand, ranging from Auckland to North Cape.
