Setaphis tikaderi ( Gajbe, 1993 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2020

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: II. Genera Drassyllus Chamberlin, 1922 and Nodocion Chamberlin, 1922 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 673 (673), pp. 1-14 : 10

Setaphis tikaderi ( Gajbe, 1993) comb. nov.

Liodrassus tikaderi Gajbe, 1993: 247 , figs 1–5.

Nodocion tikaderi Brignoli, 1983 .

Liodrassus tikaderi – Gajbe 2007: 467, figs 120–124.

Type material

Holotype (not examined)

INDIA • ♀; Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur, Amjhar Ghati on Jabalpur-Dindori road; 27 Nov. 1965; H.P. Agrawal leg.; NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (no register number).

Justification of the transfer

Although we could not examine the type of L. tikaderi , this species agrees with Setaphis in generic features such as PME largest and irregularly rectangular, epigyne with anterior margins, epigynal midpiece surrounded by median ridges and highly twisted copulatory ducts ( Platnick & Murphy 1996). All these suggest that this species belongs to Setaphis . The original illustrations of the epigyne of this species show a close resemblance with that of S. browni in the shape of epigynal mid-piece, the path of internal ducts and the shape and orientation of the receptacles, indicating its possible synonymy with the latter species (compare Gajbe 1993: figs 3–4 with Fig. 6 C–D). However, confirmation requires the examination of the type or topotype materials of S. tikaderi comb. nov..

Remarks

We found the holotype bottle of L. tikaderi in the arachnid collection of ZSI. However, it did not contain the holotype female; instead it contains a juvenile gnaphosid specimen, indicating that the holotype of L. tikaderi may either be lost or misplaced somewhere in the collection. We found the holotype bottle of Liodrassus mandae Tikader & Gajbe, 1977 in the arachnid collection of ZSI ( Fig. 6 ). The glass bottle, labeled as ‘holotype’ (5018/18), contains a female specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs except the first pair. The same bottle has a small glass vial containing the dissected epigyne.

Figures

Fig. 6. Setaphis browni (Tucker, 1923), ♀, holotype of Liodrassus mandae Tikader & Gajbe, 1977 (NZC-ZSI-5018/18). A. Habitus, dorsal view. B. Eyes of the same, dorsal view. C. Epigyne, ventral view. D. Same, dorsal view. E. Label from type bottle. Scale bars: A = 1 mm; B–D = 0.2 mm.