Corythalia variegata Caporiacco, 1954

Bayer, Steffen, Höfer, Hubert & Metzner, Heiko, 2020, Revision of the genus Corythalia C. L. Koch, 1850, part 1: Diagnosis and new species from South America (Araneae: Salticidae: Salticinae: Euophryini), Zootaxa 4806 (1), pp. 1-144 : 119

Corythalia variegata Caporiacco, 1954

Corythalia variegata Caporiacco 1954: 179 , fig. 67 description & illustration of A juvenile. instead of, juvenile male from French Guiana: Saint-Laurent-du Maroni: Charvein, ca. 05°34’N, 53°54’W, about 20 m a.s.l., R. Benoist leg. Dec. 1913, MNHN (Col. No. unknown), holotype requested at MNHN, but lost (C. Rollard, pers. comm.), thus not examined; Ruiz & Brescovit 2008: 493 (assessment as nomen dubium); (nomen dubium).

Remarks. The assessment of C. variegata as a nomen dubium by Ruiz & Brescovit (2008) is absolutely justified and will definitely not change anymore. Even, if the juvenile male holotype would be found in the future, it would be impossible to define this species, as the male copulatory organ is not developed in this specimen. A definite discrimination of Corythalia species, however, is not possible without the examination of copulatory organs of adult specimens. The present study has shown that colouration patterns, if at all, may help distinguish certain groups of species, but definitely not to recognise a particular species. Additionally, a certain degree of variation in coloura- tion is recognisable among different specimens of most species and especially the colouration of the opisthosoma depends on the nutritional state or the maturity of females (i.e. state of the oogenesis). Moreover, Crane (1948) had found out that the colouration of juvenile specimens often differ from that of adults. In French Guiana several other Corythalia species occur, e.g. C. waleckii , C. luctuosa , C. spiralis , C. foelixi Bayer , sp. nov., C. fulgipedia . It is not to exclude that the juvenile type of C. variegata is conspecific with one of these species. In any case, as the type specimen is juvenile, it is impossible to discriminate C. variegata from other Corythalia species based on the description and the illustration ( Fig. 67 ) in Caporiacco (1954).

Figures

FIGURE 67. Corythalia spp., photographic images of left palps of male specimens, ventral view. Corythalia tribulosa sp. nov.: A Holotype from Putumayo, Colombia. Corythalia valida. B Lectotype from Amazonas, Brazil. Corythalia flagrans sp. nov.: C Holotype from Acre, Brazil. Corythalia grata: D Lectotype from São Paulo, Brazil. Corythalia fragilis sp. nov.: Paratypes E SMNK-ARA 02232, F SMNK-ARA 02236, G SMNK-ARA 02237-1 and H SMNK-ARA 02237-2 from Amazonas, Brazil. Corythalia vervloeti: I Male M-2 from Amazonas and J M-4 from Paraná, Brazil. Corythalia opima: K Lectotype from eastern part of Guatemala. Corythalia spiralis: L Lectotype from Chiriquí, Panama.