Corinnomma severum ( Thorell, 1877 )

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

Corinnomma severum ( Thorell, 1877)

Fig. 2

Corinna severa Thorell, 1877: 481 (♂). Corinnomma severum: Karsch, 1880: 375 (for complete list of references, see World Spider Catalog 2019). Castaneira himalayensis Gravely, 1931: 275 , fig. 20C (♀) Castianeira himalayensis: Tikader, 1981: 265 , figs 14–16 (♀); Tikader & Biswas, 1981: 72, figs 127–128 (♀); Majumder & Tikader, 1991: 137, figs 282–286 (♀); Sen et al., 2015: 71, plate 18, figs 394–398 (♀); Dhali et al., 2017: 55, plate 20, figs 219–223 (♀), syn. nov.

Type material. Syntype of C. himalayensis (♀) from INDIA: West Bengal: Darjeeling: Tindharia (26°51’07.68’’N, 88°19’59.46’’E), 849 m a.s.l., leg. Mrs. Drake, 9.X.1915; repository NZC-ZSI (5779/H2), examined .

Remarks. The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for this species. It contains the ‘type’ (female from Tindharia), which is partly dried off with detached opisthosoma and without legs, except the right leg II and posterior segments of right leg III. The epigastric region including the epigyne is peeled off and remained at the bottom of this bottle. We failed to trace the second female specimen from Punkabari, Darjeeling, which may either be lost or misplaced elsewhere in the collection.

Gravely (1931) described this species based on two syntype females. Detailed examination of one syntype of C. himalayensis suggests that this species has all of the diagnostic features of C. severum : gradually widening opisthosoma, which is widest and truncate near the anterior tip, trapezoid epigynal plate, medio-laterally placed copulatory openings, transversely oriented copulatory ducts with a 90° bend near the spermathecae, and the spermathecae with hook-like anterior and globular posterior parts (cf. Fig. 2 A–C and Deeleman-Reinhold 2001: figs 464, 467–468). The species C. himalayensis syn. nov. should thus be regarded as a junior synonym of C. severum .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Castianeira himalayensis Gravely, 1931 (NZC-ZSI-5779/H2).A Syntype female habitus, dorsal. B Epigyne of type female, ventral. C Vulva of the same, dorsal. D Label from type bottle. E Original illustration adopted from Gravely (1931). Scale bars: A 2 mm; B–C 0.2 mm.