Thomisidae, Sundevall, 1833

Paquin, Pierre, Vink, Cor J., Dupérré, Nadine, Sirvid, Phil J. & Court, David J., 2008, Nomina dubia and faunistic issues with New Zealand spiders (Araneae), Insecta Mundi 2008 (46), pp. 1-6 : 4

Thomisidae

Tharpyna munda L. Koch 1875: 600 , plate 47, fig. 3. Erroneously reported in New Zealand.

Koch’s description does not include any locality but mentions “Ein Exemplar in Mr. Bradley’s Sammlung”. Mr. Bradley collected some spiders in New Zealand (see comments above for Araneus brisbanae ), and Simon (1895: 1014) concluded that the species occurs in New Zealand, possibly because of the comments of Keyserling (1887). This interpretation was repeated in Roewer (1955) and Platnick (2008) but in contrast, the New Zealand species lists of Urquhart (1892a), Hutton (1904), and Parrott (1946) do not mention this species or any other Tharpyna . Rainbow (1911) and Bonnet (1959: 4414) reported the species from Australia only, which appears the correct interpretation. In the light of actual data, we conclude that the description and illustration of Tharpyna munda , which are quite distinctive (see fig. 3 of Koch 1875), do not match any known species from New Zealand, and that the record is best considered erroneous.