Nihonhimea tikaderi ( Patel, 1973 ) Prasad & Tyagi & Caleb & Kumar, 2019

Prasad, Priya, Tyagi, Kamoud, Caleb, John T. D. & Kumar, Vikas, 2019, A new species of the cob web spider genus Theridion from India (Araneae: Theridiidae), Ecologica Montenegrina 26, pp. 108-117 : 116

Nihonhimea tikaderi ( Patel, 1973) comb.n.

Theridion tikaderi Patel, 1973: 149 , f. 1-4 (description and illustration of female).

Comments. Theridion tikaderi was originally described on the basis 26 females from Gujarat state of India ( Patel, 1973) with poor description of genitalia and illustration. The type depository information was not mentioned ( World Spider Catalog, 2019). The external morphology and the patterns on the dorsum of the abdomen provided by original description indicate the affinity of this species towards the genus Nihonhimea . The abdomen is globular in shape with white and chocolate patches on ventral and dorsal side ( Figs 1-4 in Patel, 1973). So, it is concluded that the species can be transferred to the genus Nihonhimea .

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Dr Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India for providing necessary facilities. Thanks due to Dr. Shelly Archarya ( Arachnida section) to provide the type materials of T. manjithar and T. indicum . We thank Master Shivendra Kumar Singh for his energetic and unconditional support during field survey in Odisha. We are also grateful to reviewer Dr. Rainer Brietling for his valuable suggestions which improved the quality of the manuscript. This work is part of the Ph.D. thesis of the first author.

Figures

Figures 1–6. Theridion odisha sp.n. 1, habitus, dorsal view. 2, same, ventral view. 3, epigyne, ventral view. 4, vulva, dorsal view. 5, epigyne, ventral view. 6, vulva, dorsal view. Scale bars 1–2, 1mm; 3–6, 0.2 mm