Abstract
Three new species from Northeastern Brazil are described and included in the newly proposed genus Macutula gen. nov. The type species M. aracoiaba sp. nov. and M. caruaru sp. nov. are described based on specimens from the State of Per-nambuco, while M. santana sp. nov. is based on specimens from the State of Bahia. Of all the species of jumping spielers in the world, over 90% belong to the Salticoida (Maddison & Hedin 2003), a clade recognized, among other features, by the loss of the female palpal claw. Within this group, the Amycoida clade is particularly significant for including a large Neotropical radiation and for being the sister group to the rest of the salticoids (Maddison & Hedin 2003; Maddison et al. 2008). The amycoid radiation, which includes, for instance, many ant-mimicking and small beetle-like salticids, presently consists of about 60 genera and 420 described species. To this diversity, the genus Macutula gen. nov. is newly presented* including three new species from Northeastern Brazil.
NSTL