Artoria Thorell, 1877

Li, Zongxu, Framenau, Volker W. & Zhang, Zhi-Sheng, 2012, First record of the wolf spider subfamily Artoriinae and the genus Artoria from China (Araneae: Lycosidae), Zootaxa 3235, pp. 35-44 : 36

Genus Artoria Thorell, 1877

Type species. Artoria parvula Thorell, 1877 .

Diagnosis. Artoria is closely related to Anoteropsis ( Vink 2002) , Artoriopsis (Framenau 2007) and Notocosa ( Vink 2002) . Males of Artoria can be distinguished by a broad and strongly sclerotised basoembolic apophysis (finger-like in Anoteropsis , weakly sclerotized and narrow basally in Artoriopsis ), a spoon-like or an apically bifurcate median apophysis with a narrow base (inverted L-shaped in Anoteropsis , straightly terminated and without widening in Artoriopsis , with a large, spherical tip in Notocosa ) ( Framenau 2002, 2007; Vink 2002). The epigyne of females of Artoria is extremely variable and does not allow a genus diagnosis. It may be indistinctly sclerotized (e.g. in A. parvula ) but is often covered by a sclerotized ovoid plate or with median septum of varying shape ( Framenau 2002).

Distribution. Southeast Asia (e.g., Indonesia, Philippines) ( Barrion & Litsinger 1995; Thorell 1877), Pacific ( Vanuatu, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Samoa, Marquesas Islands) (e.g., Framenau 2005), Australia (e.g., Framenau 2002, 2005), New Zealand ( Vink 2002) and here reported from China. Species from Africa currently listed in the genus are considered misplaced ( Framenau 2008).