Rhene flavicomans Simon, 1902

Caleb, John T. D., Sanap, Rajesh V., Tripathi, Rishikesh, Sampathkumar, M., Dharmaraj, Jayaraman & Packiam, Soosaimanickam Maria, 2022, Taxonomic notes on some South and Southeast Asian members of the genus Rhene Thorell, 1869 (Aranei, Salticidae, Dendryphantini), Zootaxa 5125 (4), pp. 389-407 : 390-392

Rhene flavicomans Simon, 1902

Figs 1–4 , 72

Rhene flavicomans Simon, 1902: 33 (D ♂); Prószyński, 1984: 119–121 (♂, D ♀); Jastrzębski, 1997: 51, figs 9–11 (♀).

Rhene biembolusa Song & Chai, 1991: 23 , figs 14A–E (D ♂); holotype ♂, in the Institute of Zoology , Beijing, not examined; syn. n.

For a complete list of taxonomic references see WSC (2022).

Material. INDIA: Kerala: 1 ♂ (RTC), Trivandrum (8.56408°N, 76.89197°E), 39 m a.s.l., 20.06.2019 , leg. R. Tripathi; Assam: 1 ♀ (NZC-ZSI/AA383), Sontipur, Biswanath Charali (26.6739°N, 92.8577°E), 69 m a.s.l., 29.05.2016, leg. S. Kundu & D. Singha.

Comments. Rhene biembolusa Song & Chai (1991) was described based on a holotype male from Bawangling, Hainan, China. The species was later discovered from mainland China and both sexes were illustrated ( Peng et al., 1994; Song et al., 1999; Peng, 2020). Based on the original and subsequent illustrations, the species shows clear resemblance in genital morphology to R. flavicomans . The male palp with short, ventrally curved embolus accompanied with slightly broad terminal apophysis resembling the embolus; epigyne with medially placed pair of oval openings; copulatory ducts broad, subparallel (cf. Figs 1–4 , illustrations in Prószyński (1984: 119–121), figs 9–11 in Jastrzębski (1997), figs 14A–E in Song & Chai (1991), figs 5–9 in Peng et al. (1994) and figs 280a–i in Peng et al. (2020)). Therefore, here R. biembolusa is considered as a junior synonym of R. flavicomans .

Distribution. India (Assam, Kerala (present data), West Bengal (Caleb, 2019)), Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, China ( WSC, 2022) ( Fig. 72 ).

Figures

FIGURE 72. Type localities (solid black) and distributional records (solid white) of Rhene species studied in this work.

FIGURES 1–4. Somatic and genitalia morphology of Rhene flavicomans Simon, 1902 from Kerala: 1—habitus, dorsal view; 2—ditto, lateral view; 3—left palp, ventral view; 4—ditto, retrolateral view. Scale bars: (3, 4) 0.1 mm, (1, 2) 1 mm.