Pirata punctipes ( Gravely, 1924 ) Sankaran & Caleb, 2023

Sankaran, Pradeep M. & Caleb, John T. D., 2023, Notes on Indian wolf spiders: III. Genera Acantholycosa Dahl, 1908, Evippomma Roewer, 1959, Hippasosa Roewer, 1960 and Trochosa C. L. Koch, 1847 (Araneae: Lycosidae), Zootaxa 5369 (4), pp. 533-552 : 545

Pirata punctipes ( Gravely, 1924) comb. nov.

Figs 9–10

Lycosa punctipes Gravely, 1924: 603 , fig. 3I (♂ ♀).

Crocodilosa punctipes : Roewer 1955: 238 (transfer from Lycosa ).

Trochosa punctipes : Tikader & Malhotra 1980: 436, figs 346–348 (♀; transfer from Crocodilosa ).

Type material. Lectotype ♀ (here designated) and paralectotype 1 ♀ from INDIA: Karnataka: Bengaluru (= Bangalore): Ulsoor (= Halasuru ) tank (= Ulsoor Lake ) (12°58’N, 77°37’E; 895 m alt.), leg. F.H. Gravely, 6-12 May 1921, repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (7736/H2), examined.

Diagnosis. Females of P. punctipes comb. nov. are most similar to the females of Pirata subpiraticus ( Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) as both share W-shaped epigynal plate, but can be distinguished from the latter species by converging spermathecal stalks with globular spermathecae (vs. parallel and oval in P. subpiraticus , compare Fig. 10A, C with Wang et al. 2021: fig. 50G–H).

Supplementary description. Female (lectotype, 7736/H2; Fig. 9A ). Fovea vertical, dark red. Body length 7.58. Carapace 3.93 long, 3.25 wide. Opisthosoma 3.65 long, 2.61 wide. Eye diameter and interdistances:ALE 0.13. AME 0.20. PLE 0.20. PME 0.23; ALE–AME 0.05. AME–AME 0.10. PLE–PLE 0.50. PME–PLE 0.27. PME–PME 0.26. Chelicerae 1.65 long. Clypeus height at ALE 0.16, at AME 0.17. Measurements of legs: I 9.63 [3.02, 1.35, 2.17, 2.31, 0.78], II 9.34 [2.94, 1.45, 1.87, 2.29, 0.79], III (right) 8.56 [2.46, 1.34, 1.70, 2.14, 0.92], IV (right) - --- [3.53, 1.62, ----, ----, ----]. Epigyne ( Fig. 10A ): epigynal plate W-shaped, moderately sclerotized. Copulatory openings indistinct.

Measurements of paralectotype female (7736/H2). Body length 6.76. Carapace 3.64 long, 3.02 wide. Opisthosoma 3.12 long, 2.24 wide. Genitalia ( Fig. 10B–C ): epigynal plate W-shaped, moderately sclerotized ( Fig. 10B ). Copulatory openings indistinct. Spermathecal stalks short, converging ( Fig. 10C ). Spermathecae globular ( Fig. 10C ).

Notes. Gravely (1924) described this species based on male and female specimens collected from Karnataka and other regions of India. Detailed examination of the types of L. punctipes shows that it has diagnostic features of Pirata , including the shape of epigynal plate, and shape and orientation of spermathecae as seen in Pirata piraticus ( Clerck, 1757) , the type species of the genus, Pirata aspirans Chamberlin, 1904 , Pirata davisi Wallace & Exline, 1978 , Pirata mayaca Gertsch, 1940 , Pirata pagicola Chamberlin, 1925 , Pirata sedentarius Montgomery, 1904 , and P. subpiraticus (compare Fig. 10A–C with Wallace & Exline 1978: figs 60, 87, 98–99, 103, 156–157; Omelko et al. 2011: fig. 11; Wang et al. 2021: fig. 50G–H). Based on these observations, we propose to transfer T. punctipes to Pirata .

The NZC-ZSI collection has two glass tubes for this species. A tube labelled as ‘types’ (7736/H2) contains one female specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs, detached opisthosoma and intact genitalia and an egg sac. The label in this tube mentions ‘male and female’, but the tube did not contain the male specimen, which may either be lost or misplaced elsewhere. There is a paper strip in this tube mentioning ‘7736/H2, Trochosa punctipes (Gravely) = L. punctipes Gravely’. A second tube without label has one female in good condition with intact genitalia. There is a paper strip in this tube mentioning ‘7736/H2 Trochosa punctipes (Gravely) /Drawn & Described’. This female, which may be the second syntype female might be taken by Tikader & Malhotra (1980) for describing it and then might be misplaced in a different tube.

Distribution. India (Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gravely 1924). The transfer of T. punctipes results in the first record of the genus Pirata from India.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Pirata punctipes (Gravely, 1924) comb. nov., types of Lycosa punctipes Gravely, 1924. A female lectotype habitus, dorsal. B female paralectotype habitus, dorsal. C egg sac of female lectotype. D labels from type tube. Scale bars: A–C, 2 mm.

FIGURE 10. Pirata punctipes (Gravely, 1924) comb. nov., types of Lycosa punctipes Gravely, 1924. A intact epigyne of female lectotype, ventral. B epigyne of female paralectotype cleared in 10% KOH, ventral. C same, dorsal. Scale bars: A–C, 0.2 mm.