Nilus O . Pickard-Cambridge 1876

Jäger, Peter, 2011, Revision of the spider genera Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876, Sphedanus Thorell 1877 and Dendrolycosa Doleschall 1859 (Araneae: Pisauridae), Zootaxa 3046, pp. 1-38 : 4

Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876

Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876: 596 , pl. 60, fig. 13 (description of the genus, including only the new species N. curtus ). Titurius Simon 1884: 329 (description of the genus, preoccupied in Coleoptera , Titurius Pascoe 1875 ). Thalassius Simon 1885: 13 (nom. nov. pro Titurius Simon 1884 ). syn. nov.

Note. The genus Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876 was described based on four juveniles from marshes in Alexandria, Egypt. It seems that none of the taxonomists that subsequently added species to this genus was aware of the vague species concept and genus definition proposed by O. Pickard-Cambridge ( 1876). Nilus is here recognised as senior synonym of Thalassius (see note under N. curtus below). Consequently, the following valid species are formally transferred from Thalassius to Nilus : Nilus albocinctus ( Doleschall 1859) comb. nov., Nilus esimoni (Sierwald 1984) comb. nov., Nilus jayakari (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge 1898) comb. nov., Nilus kolosvaryi (Caporiacco 1947) comb. nov., Nilus leoninus (Strand 1916) comb. nov., Nilus majungensis (Strand 1907) comb. nov., Nilus margaritatus (Pocock 1898) comb. nov., Nilus massajae (Pavesi 1883) comb. nov., Nilus paralbocinctus ( Zhang, Zhu & Song 2004) comb. nov., Nilus phipsoni (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge 1898) comb. nov., Nilus pictus (Simon 1898) comb. nov., Nilus pseudoalbocinctus (Sen, Saha & Raychaudhuri 2010) comb. nov., Nilus pseudojuvenilis ( Sierwald 1987) comb. nov., Nilus radiatolineatus (Strand 1906) comb. nov., Nilus rossi (Pocock 1902) comb. nov., Nilus rubromaculatus (Thorell 1899) comb. nov. Additionally, the following nomina dubia are transferred from Thalassius to Nilus : Nilus araneoides (Strand 1913) comb. nov., Nilus basimaculatus (Strand 1907) comb. nov., Nilus fimbriatus (Walckenaer 1837) comb. nov. ( type specis of Thalassius following Sierwald 1987: 56; contra Platnick 2011), Nilus guineensis (Lucas 1858) comb. nov., Nilus leo (Strand 1907) comb. nov., Nilus perincertus (Caporiacco 1947) comb. nov. One species is transferred from Pisaura to the genus Nilus : N. decoratus ( Patel & Reddy 1990) comb. nov.

Type species. Nilus curtus O. Pickard-Cambridge 1876 .

Species removed from the genus. Nilus ornatus Berland 1924 is transferred to the genus Dendrolycosa (see below).

Diagnosis and distribution. See Sierwald ( 1987: sub Thalassius )