World Spider Catalog Research Articles

Gnaphosa serzonshteini, a replacement name for Gnaphosa zonsteini Fomichev & Marusik, 2017 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)

Gnaphosa zonsteini Fomichev & Marusik, 2017, belonging to the rasnitsyni-group, was recently described from western Mongolia based on both sexes (Fomichev & Marusik 2017). This species was named in honour of our colleague and friend Sergei L. Zonstein (Tel Aviv, Israel) on occasion of his 60th birthday. While describing it, we overlooked that this species name already existed: Gnaphosa zonsteini Ovtsharenko, Platnick & Song, 1992. That species belongs to the muscorum-group, its description was based on several females collected in Kyrgyzstan (Ovtsharenko et al. 1992), which is the only country from where it is recorded so far (Mikhailov 2013). It was also named after Sergei Zonstein, who collected the holotype. Both species are known from a single taxonomic entry (World Spider Catalog 2017).

A new species of Paratus Simon, 1898 (Araneae: Liocranidae, Paratinae) from India

Paratus Simon, 1898 is a small and ill-defined liocranid genus distributed in the Oriental region (World Spider Catalog 2017) at altitudes of 27 (present data) to 2020 metres (Guchengshan [Zhao & Peng 2013]). Simon (1898) proposed this genus for a single female from Sri Lanka (Kandy) described as Paratus reticulatus Simon, 1898. Since the original description of the genus (Simon 1898) failed to provide diagnostic illustrations, the genus, after its erection, received no significant taxonomic treatment and remained dormant for a period of 103 years, until Deeleman-Reinhold (2001) re-examined and provided a detailed, illustrated redescription of the type of P. reticulatus, placing Paratus among ‘Liocraninae s.l. incertae sedis’. Marusik et al. (2008) revised, rediagnosed the genus, and assigned it into a newly proposed subfamily, Paratinae Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008. The genus currently comprises five nominal species, two of which are known from both sexes, two only from males, and one only from the female (World Spider Catalog 2017). In this paper we describe a new species of Paratus from southern India, known from both sexes. Additionally the distribution of all known Paratus spp. is mapped.

Redescription of Zoica puellula (Simon, 1898) (Araneae: Lycosidae: Zoicinae) and transfer of Zoica harduarae (Biswas & Roy, 2008) to Agelenidae C.L. Koch, 1837.

The genus Zoica Simon, 1898 comprises the smallest members of the family Lycosidae (Lehtinen & Hippa 1979; Framenau et al. 2009) and all the members are vagrant (Lehtinen & Hippa 1979). The genus was revised by Lehtinen & Hippa (1979) and currently has 12 described species (World Spider Catalog 2017). The species Zoica puellula (Simon, 1898) was based on an unspecified number of female specimens from Sri Lanka, and its original description (Simon 1898) is inadequate and lacks illustrations. The male and female genitalia of this species were subsequently illustrated several times (Roewer 1960; Lehtinen & Hippa 1979; Tikader & Malhotra 1980); however these illustrations are insufficient for proper identification and the internal female genitalia of this species have not been illustrated. Additionally, Tikader and Malhotra (1980) inferred the presence of Z. puellula in India from records of this species in Sri Lanka, but it has not yet been found in India. Here we redescribe Z. puellula based on the type material and newly collected specimens and extend its known geographic distribution to India. We also remove Zoica harduarae (Biswas & Roy, 2008), which was described from India, from the genus.

Hersilia aadi Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu, 2014 a junior synonym of Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836 (Araneae: Hersiliidae).

The genus Hersilia was established by Audouin in 1826 with H. caudata Audouin, 1826 as the type species. It is the most speciose hersiliid genus presently comprising 79 described species worldwide (World Spider Catalog 2017, version 18). There are seven species known from India: H. aadi Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu, 2014, H. longivulva Sen et al., 2010, H. orvakalensis Javed et al., 2010, H. savignyi Lucas, 1836, H. striata Wang & Yin, 1985, H. sumatrana (Thorell, 1890), H. tibialis Baehr & Baehr, 1993. This paper is based on fresh material collected from the patches of scrub jungle enclosed within the Madras Christian College campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Both sexes of H. savignyi are illustrated. H. aadi Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu, 2014 is synonymized with H. savignyi Lucas, 1836.

Two new species of orb-weaving spiders of the genus Larinia (Araneae, Araneidae) in meridional Brazil.

The araneid genus Larinia Simon currently includes 56 species, eleven of them with New World distribution (World Spider Catalog, 2016). North American species of the genus were revised first time by Levi (1975) and South American species by Harrod et al. (1991). According to these authors there are four species known from subtropical South America (Larinia bivittata Keyserling 1885; L. montecarlo (Levi, 1988); L. t-notata (Tullgren, 1905); L. tucuman Harrod, Levi & Leibensperger, 1991) and also four species known from tropical South America (L. ambo Harrod, Levi & Leibensperger, 1991; L. directa (Hentz, 1847); L. lampa Harrod, Levi & Leibensperger, 1991; L. neblina Harrod, Levi & Leibensperger, 1991). According to Buckup et al. (2010) a total of 209 species of Araneidae are recorded for state of Rio Grande do Sul, including the three species L. bivittata, L. montecarlo and L. t-notata.

Peucetia casseli Simon, 1900 has priority over P. longipes Pocock, 1900 (Araneae, Oxyopidae).

The World Spider Catalog (WSC 2016) currently lists Peucetia longipes Pocock, 1899 as a senior synonym of P. casseli Simon, 1899; according to Niekerk & Dippenaar-Schoeman (1994: 16). The synonymy decision per se is not to be doubted but, regarding the senior name choice, it was stated that "As both P. [Peucetia] longipes and P. casseli were described in 1899, we decided to give P. longipes priority over P. casseli as the former species was more often referred to in the literature." So Niekerk & Dippenaar-Schoeman (1994) did not check the month or even the day of the two relevant publications.

A new species of Acantholycosa baltoroi-group (Araneae: Lycosidae, Pardosinae) from the Russian Far East.

Acantholycosa Dahl, 1908 is relatively large genus of wolf spiders with 28 named species and one subspecies (World Spider Catalog 2016) distributed in the Holarctic, though the majority of its species (24) is known from Russia. Although the genus is well studied due to several revisions (Marusik et al. 2004; Marusik & Omelko 2011; Omelko et al. 2016), its real species diversity remains unknown. A recent study of the collections of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University revealed one undescribed species from Khabarovsk Province of Russia, belonging to the A. baltoroi-group of species. The main goals of this publications are the description of this new species and the proposition of an identification key to males of the A. baltoroi-group.

A new species and a new record of the spider genus Nesticus (Araneae, Nesticidae) from southern Brazil.

The spider family Nesticidae includes 233 species in 13 genera and is distributed almost worldwide (World Spider Catalog, 2016). However, the family is still poorly known in the Neotropical Region. The genus Nesticus Thorell, 1869 comprises 132 species and seven subspecies and was described based on N. cellulanus (Clerck, 1757), from Europe (World Spider Catalog, 2016). Meridional South American species of Nesticus were revised by Ott & Lise (2002). More recently, Faleiro & Santos (2011) described a new species from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil and Torres et al. (2016) a new species from the province of Salta, Argentina. Nowadays, Nesticus is represented by six species in Brazil: Nesticus brasiliensis Brignoli, 1979; Nesticus brignolii Ott & Lise, 2002; Nesticus calilegua Ott & Lise, 2002; Nesticus ivone Faleiro & Santos, 2011; Nesticus potreiro Ott & Lise, 2002 and Nesticus taim Ott & Lise, 2002 (World Spider Catalog 2016).

Two new species of Clubiona Latreille (Araneae: Clubionidae) from China.

Clubiona Latreille, 1804, comprising approximately 78% of all Clubionidae species described so far, is the largest genus in the family. Of the 476 Clubiona species worldwide, 113 have been reported from China (World Spider Catalog 2016, Li & Lin 2016). However, the diversity of this genus in China is still insufficiently known and several new species have been described in the last few years (Wu & Zhang 2014a; Wu & Zhang 2014b; Dankittipakul & Singtripop 2014; Wang, Wu & Zhang 2015; Wu, Zheng & Zhang 2015). Among several species groups proposed to accommodate the species of the genus (Mikhailov 1995), the Corticalis group is one of the most well known in China, computing 19 species described so far for that country (Wang, Wu & Zhang 2015; Wu, Zheng & Zhang 2015). While examining spiders collected in Yunnan and Hunan provinces, China, we found two new Clubiona species of the Corticalis group, which are described below.

A new species of the genus Apollophanes O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1898 (Araneae: Philodromidae) with the first record to the Atlantic rainforest.

Apollophanes has a wide distribution, with some species in Asia and most of the species recorded from North and Central America (World Spider Catalog 2016). New species described from the Galapagos Islands by Baert (2013) have extended the genus range to South America. According to Dondale and Redner (1975) and Dondale and Redner (1978), the species of Apollophanes have a moderately low prosoma, usually of yellow to orange-brown color and with black or brown spots on the lateral margins. The posterior eyes distances are equally spaced and the legs are long, slender and speckled with dark spots, with leg I usually being longer than IV (characteristic observed only in the male exemplar of the new species). The opisthosoma has a conspicuous heart mark, dark longitudinal spots on the lateral margins and a pale ventral region with purple spots. According to Dondale and Redner (1975) and Logunov (1996), Apollophanes shares some features with species of Cleocnemis, Thanatus and Tibellus, e.g. the shape and coloration patterns of the dorsal shield of the prosoma, as well as the slender legs with dark spots. Apollophanes can be distinguished from Cleocnemis by the presence of two tibial apophyses (ventral and retrolateral) and by the size of the copulatory ducts openings that are long slits that reach the posterior margin of epigastric furrow in Apollophanes, while in Cleocnemis the openings are shorter and situated in central region of the median septum (Dondale & Redner 1975). Apollophanes differs from Thanatus by the presence of macrosetae on the prolateral region of the metatarsus, and differs from Tibellus by the size of leg IV, that is longer than leg I (Dondale & Redner 1975).

A new species of the spider genus Plator (Trochanteriidae) from south China.

The spider genus Plator Simon (1880) is a small and little-known group in the spider family Trochanteriidae. Species of Plator are called flat-spiders in Chinese for the extremely flat habitus (Zhu & Wang 1963). Up to now, 11 Plator species have been recorded from India, China, Korea and Japan. Six of them, P. insolens Simon (1880), P. pandeae Tikader (1969), P. pennatus Platnick (1976), P. sinicus Zhu & Wang (1963), P. yunlong Zhu et al. (2006) and P. bowo Zhu et al. (2006) are reported from China (World Spider Catalog 2016). Zhu et al. (2006) suggested two species groups for at least all Chinese Plator species, the P. insolens group and the P. pennatus group. The former can be recognized by the absence of RTA of male pedipalp, and the narrow first windings of the copulatory duct system of female epigyne and the latter, distinguished by the presence of RTA and the broad first windings of the copulatory duct system.

Zora alpina Kulczyński, 1915 (Araneae: Miturgidae): description of the male, redescription of the female.

Zora Koch, 1847 is a small genus distributed in the Holarctic region. The genus comprises 16 species, 14 of them distributed in the Palaearctic region and two from the Neartic (World Spider Catalog 2016). The European fauna includes 11 species (Nentwig et al. 2016), 8 of which are present in Italy (Pantini & Isaia 2016). Zora has historically been placed in several different families, but is now in the Miturgidae Simon, 1886 following the phylogenetic analyses of Ramirez (2014).

Redescription of Draposa subhadrae (Patel & Reddy, 1993) (Araneae: Lycosidae, Pardosinae).

Draposa Kronestedt, 2010 is a small genus of Pardosinae spiders. Currently it encompasses 10 species (World Spider Catalog 2016) distributed from Pakistan to Southeast China. Most species of the genus, except for D. porpaensis (Gajbe, 2004), are known from both sexes and were described or redescribed by Kronestedt (2010). Two other species, D. amkhasensis (Tikader & Malhotra, 1976) and D. burasantiensis (Tikader & Malhotra, 1976), both recently transferred to Draposa (Dhali et al. 2012 ), are doubtful because their copulatory organs are not properly illustrated and differ from the type species and other species of the genus. The male of Draposa subhadrae (Patel & Reddy, 1993) remains known by very poor original drawings because Kronestedt (2010) was not able to study types. While studying material from Sri Lanka collected by us, we found one sample with two females belonging to D. subhadrae and two males of Draposa having the same colour pattern and size. We concluded that these specimens are conspecific. The goal of this paper is to provide an illustrated redescription of this species.

A new jumping spider of the genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886 from India (Araneae: Salticidae: Aelurillina).

The genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886 is known from 35 species worldwide, including 27 species from Africa and eight from Asia (four species known from India, one from Iran, one from China, one from Tibet and one from Vietnam) (World Spider Catalog 2016). The four species known from India are S. albus Sebastian et al., 2015, S. jagannathae Das, Malik & Vidhel, 2015, S. lesserti Reimoser, 1934 and S. sarojinae Caleb & Mathai, 2014 (Prószyński 2015; World Spider Catalog 2016). The present paper contains description of Stenaelurillus metallicus sp. nov., discovered from scrub jungle remnants of tropical dry evergreen forests, a unique habitat found in Madras Christian College campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Two new synanthropic species of Anyphaena Sundevall (Araneae: Anyphaenidae) associated to houses in Mexico City.

The family Anyphaenidae is composed by 56 genera and 542 species worldwide (World Spider Catalog 2015). These spiders, known as "ghost spiders", are wandering hunters living in a variety of environments, from forests to deserts, and can be quite abundant in different crops such as cotton, sorghum and rice (Brescovit 1996; Young & Edwards 1990; Taylor & Pfannenstiel 2008). They typically live on vegetation, among dead leaves or under loose bark and rocks (Richman & Ubick 2005) but synanthropic associations have been reported for a few species (Jiménez 1998; Guarisco 1999; Durán-Barrón et al. 2009). The genus Anyphaena has 81 species widely distributed in Asia, Central Europe, North America and Mexico (Brescovit 1996; Richman & Ubick 2005; World Spider Catalog 2015). The species from Noth America and Mexico were revised by Platnick (1974) who recognized four species groups (accentuata, celer, pectorosa and pacifica). Platnick (1977), Platnick & Lau (1975) and Brescovit & Lise (1989) complemented the revision of the genus in Central America. Presently, there are 27 species of Anyphaena recorded in Mexico (World Spider Catalog 2015), 24 of them from the celer group. Here, two new species of Anyphaena are described based in material collected during an inventory of spiders associated to houses in Mexico City, carried out by Durán-Barrón et al. (2009). Both species have the diagnostic characters of the members of the pacifica group as defined by Platnick (1974), such as the lack of leg coxal spurs and the presence of a lightly sclerotized atrium in the female epigynum. These species represent the first record of the pacifica group in Mexico. The occurrence of Anyphaenidae associated to houses was reported in Mexico by Durán-Barrón et al. (2009), who recorded Anyphaena obregon Platnick & Lau, 1975 and Hibana futilis (Banks, 1898) as frequent inhabitants inside houses. The species herein described are reported solely from urban areas and can be also characterized as frequent in these anthropic environments.

A new species of Acantholycosa Dahl, 1908 (Araneae: Lycosidae) from the Russian Far East.

Acantholycosa Dahl, 1908 is a relatively large genus, comprising 29 species to date (World Spider Catalog 2015). The genus is well delimited; its members are recognized by having 4-6 pairs of ventral spines at leg I, a wide embolus (sometimes with a spine at its base), apical pocket(s) of epigyne separated from fovea, among other characters (cf. Marusik et al. 2004, 2015). Acantholycosa is the among the better known genera of Holarctic Lycosidae due to several revisions and reviews (Kronestedt & Marusik 2002; Marusik et al. 2004, 2015; Marusik & Logunov 2011; Marusik & Omelko 2011). Most Acantholycosa are known from the Altai-Sayan mountain system (21 species, of which 17 are local endemics) and the Maritime Province of Russia (6 species, three are local endemics). Although the Russian Far East is well studied, an expedition to the previously unstudied Phalaza Mt. in the south part of Maritime Province revealed a new species closely related to A. azarkinae Marusik & Omelko, 2011. The main goal of this paper is to provide detailed description of this new species.

The orb-weaving spider genus Chrysometa in Uruguay: distribution and description of a new species (Araneae, Tetragnathidae)

The spider genus Chrysometa Simon, 1895 comprises 138 species of small (3-5 mm) Neotropical orb-weavers spiders (Nogueira et al. 2011; World Spider Catalogue 2015) mainly associated with arboreal vegetation from intermediate to low altitude forests (Levi 1986). Males of Chrysometa differ from other tetragnathids by having the palpal tibial length approximately as long as its widest point; paracymbium articulated and with several apophyses located at both ends; male cephalic region narrower than in the female and having cymbial ectobasal and ectomedian processes. Females are diagnosed by having femora without trichobothria; abdomen covered with silver guanine patches; a flat epigynum and also by their fertilization ducts originating anteriorly and crossing over the spermathecae (Levi 1986; Alvarez-Padilla & Hormiga 2011).

Redescription of the Jamaican orb-weaving spider Chrysometa pecki Levi, 1986 (Araneae, Tetragnathidae), including the first description of the male.

The tetragnathid genus Chrysometa Simon, 1894 includes 138 species found in the Americas, ranging from the Caribbean to Chile (World Spider Catalog 2015). This genus was revised by Levi (1986), with more recent publications adding to the genus (Álvarez-Padilla 2007, Nogueira et al. 2011, Simó et al., in press). Following Álvarez-Padilla & Hormiga (2011), Chrysometa is differentially diagnosed from other American tetragnathids based on the male palp with a cymbial ectobasal process, cymbial ectomedian process, and embolic basal process, and a paracymbium articulated with a membrane. The epigynum is flat, with fertilization ducts present. Both sexes have guanine crystals in their abdomen and femora lacking trichobothria. Three Jamaican Chrysometa are known: C. pecki Levi, 1986, C. fuscolimbata (Archer, 1958) and C. linguiformis (Franganillo, 1930); all of them known from females only (Levi 1986).

Cyrtarachne keralensis Jose, 2011 is a junior synonym of Anepsion maritatum (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877) (Araneae, Araneidae).

The Indo-pacific araneid genus Anepsion, with A. rhomboides (L. Koch, 1867) as the type species, was erected by Strand in 1929. He proposed the name Anepsion as a replacement name for Anepsia L. Koch, 1871, preoccupied by Anepsia Gistl, 1848, a dipteran genus (OBIS Australia, 2015). The genus was revised by Chrysanthus (1961, 1969) and currently has 16 described species and 1 subspecies (World Spider Catalog 2015). In the present paper, we are reporting the genus from India for the first time and synonymising Cyrtarachne keralensis Jose, 2011 with Anepsion maritatum O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1877. A redescription and illustrations of both male and female of A. maritatum are provided.

First record of the jumping spider genus Bavia Simon, 1877 from India, with the description of a new species

The tropical jumping spider genus Bavia was erected by Simon (1877) to include only the type species B. aericeps Simon, 1877, a relatively large, foliage-dwelling, plurident spider with broad carapace, long, tubular abdomen and longest and robust legs I (Murphy & Murphy 2000). To date, twenty species have been catalogued from Southeast Asia, Australia and Madagascar, of which six are known only from males, five only from females and nine are known from both sexes (World Spider Catalog 2015).