On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)
Author
Sankaran, Pradeep M.
Author
Caleb, John T. D.
Author
Sebastian, Pothalil A.
text
Journal of Natural History
2020
2020-10-28
54
21 - 22
1325
1336
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2020.1797201
journal article
10.1080/00222933.2020.1797201
1464-5262
5757827
Synaphosus parvus
(O
.
Pickard-Cambridge, 1906
)
comb. nov.
(
Figure 4
(a,b,c,d))
Phaeocedus parvus
O.
Pickard-Cambridge, 1906: 57
, Plate A, figs 1–3.
Type material
Holotype
female from BRITAIN (?) or
INDIA
(?),
E.A. Newbery
leg., 1901, repository
OUMNH
(1726), Oxford, examined based on photographs.
Justification of the transfer
O.
Pickard-Cambridge (1906)
described
P. parvus
based on a single female specimen received from E. A. Newbery. The type locality of this species is uncertain, i.e. whether in Britain or
India
, as Newbery got this specimen from a returned package of damaged British goods from
India
(O.
Pickard-Cambridge 1906
). Even though the original illustration of the epigyne of this species is highly schematic, it shows resemblance to the epigyne of
Synaphosus syntheticus
(
Chamberlin, 1924
)
, the type species of the genus (compare O.
Pickard-Cambridge 1906
: fig. A2 with
Platnick and Shadab 1980
: fig. 42;
Ovtsharenko et al. 1994
: fig. 15). Detailed examination of the
holotype
of this species revealed that it has all the diagnostic features of
Synaphosus
Platnick & Shadab, 1980
: recurved AER and straight PER, both from above, PME largest, AME smallest, epigyne with anterior margins and elaborately twisted spermathecae (see
Platnick and Shadab 1980
; O.
Pickard-Cambridge 1906
: fig. 1; herein
Figure 4
(a,b)). Based on these observations, we consider the decision to transfer
P. parvus
to
Synaphosus
fully justified.
Figure 4.
Phaeocedus parvus
O.
Pickard-Cambridge, 1906
(OUMNH-1726), holotype (=
Synaphosus parvus
comb. nov.
). (a) female, dorsal view; inset eye group enlarged, dorsal view. (b) epigyne. (c, d) labels from type bottle. Scale bars a = 1 mm; b = 0.2 mm. © OUMNH, Oxford.
Species transferred to and synonymised in other family