Drassodes lutescens (C. L. Koch, 1839 )

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Journal of Natural History 54 (21 - 22), pp. 1325-1336 : 1328-1329

Drassodes lutescens (C. L. Koch, 1839)

( Figure 2 (a,b,c,d))

Drassus lutescens C. L. Koch, 1839: 21 , fig. 445 (for complete list of references, see World Spider Catalog 2020).

Phaeocedus mosambaensis Tikader, 1964: 262 , fig. 4a–d; 1982: 359, figs 150–153. New synonymy

Type material of P. mosambaensis

Holotype female from NEPAL: Central / Eastern Himalaya: on way to Mosamba Lake, 4600 m alt, A.K. Dutta leg., 12 May 1958, repository NZC-ZSI (2486/18), Kolkata, examined.

Justification of the synonymy

Tikader (1964) described P. mosambaensis based on a single female specimen collected in Nepal. This species belongs to Drassodes as it possesses diagnostic features of Drassodes species : trochanters notched, epigyne with mid-piece and curved lateral margins and vulva consists of primary and secondary spermathecae (compare Figure 2 (b, c) with Platnick and Shadab 1976: figs 31–32,35–36).Detailed examination of the holotype of this species revealed that it has all the diagnostic features of D. lutescens : epigyne with a tongue-like median septum, C-shaped lateral pouches, small, irregular primary spermathecae (lower spermathecae) and large, inflated balloon-like secondary spermathecae (upper spermathecae) (compare Figure 2 (b,c) with Chatzaki et al. 2002b: figs 25–26; Chatzopoulou and Chatzaki 2009: figs 12–24). Based on these observations, we propose to consider P. mosambaensis a junior synonym of D. lutescens .

Supplementary description

Female ( Figure 2 (a)): cheliceral promargin with a single tooth, retromargin with a single denticle. Trochanters notched. Body length 6.92. Prosoma length 3.08, width 2.19. Opisthosoma length 3.84, width 2.18. Eye diameters: ALE 0.13. AME 0.11. PLE 0.13. PME 0.14. Eye interdistances: AME–ALE 0.06. AME–AME 0.13. AME–PME 0.14. PME–PLE 0.20. PME–PME 0.08. Length of chelicerae 0.94. Measurements of legs: II (right) 6.08 [1.87, 0.96, 1.10, 1.18, 0.97], III 6.27 [1.86, 0.74, 1.30, 1.44, 0.93], IV 8.10 [2.25, 1.06, 1.72, 2.10, 0.97].

Remarks

The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for P. mosambaensis labelled as ‘holotype’ (2486/ 18) containing a female specimen without left legs I and II, right legs I and III, right palp and the patella, tibia and tarsus of left palp; otherwise good in condition. The dissected genitalia are kept in a small glass vial inside the holotype bottle.

Figures

Figure 2. Phaeocedus mosambaensis Tikader, 1964 (NZC-ZSI-2486/18), holotype (=Drassodes lutescens (C. L. Koch, 1839)). (a) female, dorsal view. (b) epigyne. (c) vulva. (d) label from type bottle. Scale bars a = 1 mm; b, c = 0.2 mm.