Systematics and biogeography of the sheet-web building wolf spider genus Venonia (Araneae:Lycosidae)

Abstract

The Australian/Oriental wolf spider genus Venonia Thorell, 1894 (type species V. coruscans Thorell, 1894) belongs to one of the few true web-building genera within the Lycosidae. Their small sheet-webs with funnel-like retreats are generally found in the ground layer of vegetation, such as on lawns and meadows, but also in depressions of soil and under roots of trees. Members of the genus Venonia are easily identified within the Lycosidae due to a unique combination of somatic and genitalic characters. Most conspicuous is a posterodorsal white spot on the abdomen just above the elongated posterior spinnerets on an otherwise uniformly coloured, small, and relatively slender spider. The cymbium of the male pedipalp is highly asymmetrical appearing retrolaterally truncated. Its tegular apophysis is membranous. The female epigyne is generally not sclerotised and has a posterior central incision. Our revision recognises fifteen species of which seven are new to science: V. chaiwooi, sp. nov.; V. choiae, sp. nov.; V. cinctipes (Simon, 1898); V. coruscans Thorell, 1894; V. infundibulum, sp. nov.; V. joejim, sp. nov.; V. kimjoopili, sp. nov.; V. kokoda Lehtinen & Hippa, 1979; V. micans (Simon, 1898) (= Venonia gabrielae Barrion & Litsinger, 1995, new synonymy); V. micarioides (L. Koch, 1877); V. milla Lehtinen & Hippa, 1979; V. muju (Chrysanthus, 1967); V. nata, sp. nov.; V. sungahae, sp. nov.; and V. vilkkii Lehtinen & Hippa, 1979. A phylogenetic analysis including representatives of the venoniine genera Anomalosa Roewer, 1960 and Allotrochosina Roewer, 1960 with Pirata subpiraticus (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) as outgroup suggests a Gondwanan origin of the Venoniinae and one dispersal event within Venonia from the Australian region into Wallacea and only one dispersal event by V. coruscans into the Oriental region. Venonia spirocysta Chai, 1991 from China is not a true Venonia and is here considered incerta sedis. We reject the inclusion of the genus Zoica Simon, 1898 in the subfamily Venoniinae Lethinen & Hippa, 1979 due to considerable morphological differences in representatives of this genus (in particular in the male pedipalp), and therefore consider the subfamily Zoicinae Lehtinen & Hippa, 1979 as valid.