A checklist of Indian armored spiders (Araneae, Tetrablemmidae) with the description of a new species from the Western Ghats
Author
Sankaran, Pradeep M.
Author
Sebastian, Pothalil A.
text
Zootaxa
2016
2016-02-26
4084
3
443
450
journal article
31455
10.11646/zootaxa.4084.3.9
3da62e39-7304-4933-a4eb-aecbc1c5d77e
1175-5326
1052247
5FEBA8FA-FA3B-421A-8F8C-2F5DD3243D30
Monoblemma browni
Shear, 1978
comb. rev.
Monoblemma browni
Shear, 1978
: 23
, figs. 57–61(Description and illustration of male [male
holotype
from
MADAGASCAR
: Périnet;
W. L. Brown
leg.;
March 1969
; deposited in
AMNH
]).
Shearella browni
:
Lehtinen, 1981
: 54
(Brief description of male holotype; transfer).
Justification of the transfer:
Shear (1978)
described this species as
Monoblemma browni
on the basis of a single male from
Madagascar
.
Lehtinen (1981)
transferred this species to
Shearella
. Judging from the original description and illustrations of the male (
Shear 1978
), this species better fits the diagnostic features of
Monoblemma
than those of
Shearella
: it has a less compact eye group which is not elevated on a conical tubercle in the male, male chelicerae with short curving apophysis, clypeus with a pair of setae, and palpal bulb piriform, with long unmodified embolus. The features mentioned by Lehtinen to distinguish this species from
M. unicum
Gertsch, 1941
are merely species-specific and are not sufficient enough to alter its generic combination. Lehtinen pointed out that this species is not very close to
S. lilawati
and
S. selvarani
. He suggested to establish a new genus to accommodate this species, which, however, will be delayed until the discovery of females. Until then, it is better to include this species in
Monoblemma
rather than in
Shearella
.