Sphingius dherikanalensis ( Gajbe, 1979 ) Sankaran & Caleb, 2021

Sankaran, Pradeep M. & Caleb, John T. D., 2021, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: V. Genera Megamyrmaekion Reuss, 1834, Sosticus Chamberlin, 1922 and Gaviphosa gen. nov. (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Zootaxa 5040 (4), pp. 539-564 : 557

Sphingius dherikanalensis ( Gajbe, 1979) comb. nov.

Figs 78–83

Sosticus dherikanalensis Gajbe, 1979: 71 , fig. 1F–J (♀). Tikader, 1982: 434, figs 315–319 (♀).

Type material. Holotype ♀ from INDIA : Odisha: Dhenkanal (not Dherikanal): Tikarpada (not Tikarpara) (20°35’56’’N, 84°48’02’’E), 262 m alt., J.K. Sen leg., 29.II.1972, NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (4319/18), examined.

Justification of the transfer. The conical anterior lateral spinnerets of this species ( Fig. 80 ) clearly indicated that it is misplaced in Gnaphosidae . The original genitalic illustrations of this species ( Gajbe 1979: fig. 1H–I) clearly indicated that it is misplaced in Sosticus . Examination of the type of this species revealed that it has diagnostic features of Sphingius as illustrated for S. spinosus , Sphingius tristiculus Simon, 1903 , Sphingius vivax (Thorell, 1897) , Sphingius zhangi Zhang, Fu & Zhu, 2009 and S. hainan : epigyne with anterior hood, anteriorly placed epigynal atrium with indistinct posterior margin and vulva consist of anterior bursae and spermathecae (compare Figs 81–82 with Deeleman-Reinhold 2001: fig. 842, Zhang et al. 2009: figs 27–28, Zhang & Fu 2010: figs 9–10 and Dankittipakul et al. 2011: figs 3–4, 25–26). Based on these observations, we propose to transfer S. dherikanalensis to Sphingius .

Remarks. The ZSI collection has one glass tube for this species labeled as ‘holotype’ (4319/18) containing a female specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs. The same tube has a micro-vial containing the dissected epigyne. The label mentions the date of collection as ‘ 29/11/1972 ’.

Figures

FIGURES 78–83. Sphingius dherikanalensis (Gajbe, 1979) comb. nov., type of Sosticus dherikanalensis Gajbe, 1979. 78 holotype female habitus, dorsal view; 79 eyes of holotype female, dorsal view; 80 spinnerets of holotype female, ventral view; 81–82 genitalia of holotype female (81 epigyne, ventral view, 82 vulva, dorsal view); 83 label from type tube. Abbreviations: AH, anterior epigynal hood; B, bursa; S, spermatheca. Scale bars: 78, 2 mm; 79–80, 0.5 mm; 81–82, 0.2 mm.