A review of the genus Sphingius Thorell, 1890 from India (Araneae: Liocranidae)
Author
Sankaran, Pradeep M.
Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India
Author
Caleb, John T. D.
0000-0002-9471-9467
Zoological Survey of India, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal 700 053, India caleb 87 woodgate @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 9471 - 9467
caleb87woodgate@gmail.com
Author
Sebastian, Pothalil A.
0000-0002-4936-4310
Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India & drpothalil @ rediffmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 4936 - 4310
drpothalil@rediffmail.com
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-12-23
4896
4
505
522
journal article
9199
10.11646/zootaxa.4896.4.3
6592cf39-be44-44f4-842d-e0126d8640ad
1175-5326
4387671
0824AFA4-4E8B-419B-972C-0FA0A88538FF
Inthaeron longipes
(
Gravely, 1931
)
comb. nov.
Figs 10–11
FIGURE 8.
Sphingius
sp.. A, C Ƌ: A habitus, dorsal; C eye group, dorsal. B, D ♀: B habitus, dorsal; D eye group, dorsal. E label from specimen bottle. F illustrations of ‘
S. caniceps
’ adopted from
Gravely (1931)
. Scale bars: A, 1 mm; B, 2 mm; C, 0.2 mm; D, 0.5 mm.
Sphingius longipes
Gravely, 1931: 270
, fig. 19A–B;
Majumder & Tikader, 1991: 148
, figs 311–314.
Type material.
Syntype
Ƌ from
INDIA
:
Kerala
: Palakkad: Pattambi (formerly in
Malabar district
): beside the traveller’s bungalow, leg.
F.H. Gravely
,
24–28 May 1930
, deposited in NZC-ZSI (no register number), examined (
Fig. 10E
)
.
Justification of the transfer.
Detailed examination of the
syntype
of
S. longipes
Gravely, 1931
revealed that it has the typical somatic morphology for
Cithaeronidae Simon, 1893
(
Fig. 10
A–D) and the diagnostic features of the monotypic cithaeronid genus
Inthaeron
Platnick, 1991
, as illustrated for
Inthaeron rossi
Platnick, 1991
, the type species of the genus: highly coiled embolus, and embolus with a fringed flange (compare
Fig. 11
A–C with
Platnick & Gajbe 1994
: figs 1–3). Based on these observations, we propose to transfer
S. longipes
to
Inthaeron
.
Diagnosis.
The male of
I. longipes
comb. nov.
can be separated from the male of
I. rossi
by the following combination of features: broad retrolateral tibial apophysis (narrow in
I. rossi
), fringed flange with a prolateral twist (fringed flange with retrolateral twist in
I. rossi
) and absence of a median apophysis (
I. rossi
with highly reduced median apophysis) (compare
Figs 10F
and
11
A–C with
Platnick & Gajbe 1994
: figs 1–3). Females can be separated from the females of
I. rossi
by an anteriorly oriented long, median tongue-like plate (
Fig. 10F
), which is absent in the latter species (
Gravely 1931
;
Platnick 1991
: fig. 21).
FIGURE 9.
Sphingius
sp.. A–D Ƌ left pedipalp: A prolateral, B ventral; C retrolateral; D enlarged view of retrolateral tibial apophysis, retrolateral. E ♀ epigynum, ventral. Abbreviations: C conductor, E embolus, MA median tegular apophysis, RTA retrolateral tibial apophysis, TA accessory tegular apophysis. Scale bars: A–E, 0.2 mm.
Note.
With the transfer of
S. longipes
, the total number of known
Inthaeron
species is increased to two,
I. rossi
and
I. longipes
comb. nov.
; both species are known from both sexes.
Remarks.
The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for this species labelled as “
Type
” (1513/18), containing a male specimen in good condition, with intact pedipalps.
Gravely (1931)
also described the female of this species (
Fig. 10F
), but we could not trace any female specimen in the collection.