Oedignatha adhartali ( Gajbe, 2003 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2019

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2019, New synonymies and transfers in Castianeira Keyserling, 1879 (Araneae, Corinnidae, Castianeirinae) from India, Zootaxa 4623 (2), pp. 331-340 : 334

Oedignatha adhartali ( Gajbe, 2003) comb. nov.

Castianeira adhartali Gajbe, 2003: 1035 , figs 1–4 (♂ ♀).

Type material. Holotype ♀ and allotype ♂ from INDIA: Madhya Pradesh: Jabalpur: Adhartal (23°11’57.24’’N, 79°56’39.08’’E), 399 m a.s.l., leg. Pawan Gajbe; 5 October 1997; repository NZC-ZSI, not examined.

Remarks. We were unable to find the types of C. adhartali in the arachnid collection of ZSI, even though the author claimed that the types were deposited here ( Gajbe 2003).

This species was described on the basis of male and female specimens ( Gajbe 2003). Although we did not examine the types of C. adhartali , which were presumably not deposited in ZSI, the illustrations of this species available in the original description are useful, at least to confirm its misplacement in Castianeira and to support its inclusion in the liocranid genus Oedignatha Thorell, 1881 . Its pedipalp is clearly not pear-shaped with an apically oriented embolus and without accessory sclerites, as in all castianeirines. Instead, the pedipalp of C. adhartali has a medially placed, nearly globular tegulum with multiple sclerites, as seen in the case of Oedignatha species (cf. Gajbe 2003: fig. 4 and Deeleman-Reinhold 2001: figs 353, 357, 365, 367, 371). The epigyne is also similar to other Oedignatha species (cf. Gajbe 2003: fig. 3 and Fig. 3 C–D). Based on these observations, we consider the transfer of C. adhartali to Oedignatha fully justified.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Castianeira indica Tikader, 1981 (NZC-ZSI-5096-97/18). A Holotype female habitus, dorsal. B Paratype female habitus, dorso-lateral. C Epigyne of holotype female, ventral. D Vulva of the same, dorsal. E Epigyne of paratype female, ven- tral. F–G Labels from type bottles. H Original illustrations adopted from Tikader (1981). Scale bars: A–B 1 mm; C–E 0.2 mm.