Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836

Caleb, John T. D., Pravalikha, G. B., Johnson, Benaiah Ebenezer, Manyu, Mitemlu, Mungkung, Soreiphy & Mathai, Manu Thomas, 2017, Hersilia aadi Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu, 2014 a junior synonym of Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836 (Araneae: Hersiliidae), Zootaxa 4254 (3), pp. 396-400 : 396-398

Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836

Figs 1–13

Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836: 10 , pl. 13, fig. 1 (Description & illustration of ♀); Simon, 1885d: 19, pl. 10, figs. 18-19 (Description and illustration of ♂); Simon, 1893a: 414, figs. 417, 426 (Description and illustration of ♂&♀); Pocock, 1900a: 241, fig. 82 (Description and illustration of ♀); Gravely, 1922: 1050, pl. 5, fig. 13 (Description in part); Benoit, 1974c: 995, figs. 1, 4 (Description and illustration of ♀); Tikader & Biswas, 1981: 47, figs. 74-76 (Illustration of ♀); Gajbe, 1993a: 117, figs. 1–3 (Description and illustration of ♂&♀); Baehr & Baehr, 1993b: 29, figs. 5, 22a–f (Description and illustration of ♂&♀); Gajbe, 2004: 135, figs. 1–3 (Description and illustration of ♂&♀); Gajbe, 2007: 434, figs. 26–30 (Description and illustration of ♂&♀).

Hersilia indica Walckenaer, 1837: 372 (Description in part).

Hersilia calcuttensis Stoliczka, 1869: 216 , pl. 20, figs. 9 (Description and illustration of ♀).

Hersilia clathrata Thorell, 1895: 56 (Description of ♀); Barrion & Litsinger, 1995: 411, figs. 246a–k (Description and illustration of ♂&♀).

Hersilia aadi Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu, 2014: 5554 , images 1a–j, 2, 3a–f, f. 1a–c (Misidentification; description and illustration of ♂&♀). Types kept at the Natural History Museum of Osmania University, Hyderabad, re-examined. New synonymy

Material examined: Types of H. aadi , 6♂ ( OUNHM.ART.ARA. 2011.13,15-19) and 7♀ ( OUNHM.ART.ARA. 2011.14,20-25).

Additional material: (MCC-ARA-HER-01 to 27)— 2♂ & 3♀, Madras Christian College , Tambaram, India, (12.921293˚ N, 80.121971˚ E) Altitude 32m, leg. John Caleb & Soreiphy Mungkung ; 2♂ & 3♀, 13 July 2016, leg. Mitemlu Manyu & Benaiah Johnson; 4♀, 14 July 2016; 4♀, 22 July 2016; 2♂ & 1 immature ♀, 13 Sept 2016; 2♂, 1 immature ♂ & 3 ♀, 6 Oct 2016 same location, all leg. Benaiah Johnson & Mitemlu Manyu ; 1♀ (NCBS-QA479), Kothanur , Bangalore, Karnataka, India (13.062085˚ N, 77.650576˚ E) Altitude 899m, 0 8 October 2014 leg. John Caleb .

Diagnosis. H. savignyi Lucas, 1836 can be distinguished from related species by its rather short cymbium; tegular apophysis with a strongly projecting basal process and upper surface with pilose field on the latero-apical process ( Figs. 6 & 10 ). The vulva is somewhat narrow and elongate with circular spermathecae; well sclerotized copulatory openings situated medially ( Figs. 8–9 , 12–13 ) ( Baehr & Baehr, 1993).

Description. For detailed description see Baehr & Baehr (1993) and Pravalikha et al. (2014).

Justification of synonymy. Pravalikha, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2014) described H. aadi from the Osmania University campus, Hyderabad, (presently in Telengana state), India. The original description is based on 13 specimens (6♂ & 7♀). Pravalikha et al. (2014) mention that H. aadi belongs to the H. savignyi species group but do not provide any distinct diagnostic characters to distinguish between H. aadi and H. savignyi . However, they provide good illustration of the epigyne and vulva which are clearly distinct and show no difference to that of H. savignyi (cf. Image 3b-d in Pravalikha et al. (2014) and Figs. 8–9 herein with fig. 22e-f in Baehr & Baehr (1993) and figs. 1, 4 in Benoit (1974)). Though the illustrations of the male palp is neither in a proper ventral nor retrolateral view the diagnostic characters such as the pilose latero-apical process of the tegular apophysis and embolus are however clearly evident (cf. Image 1i-j in Pravalikha et al. (2014) and Figs. 5–7 with fig. 22c-d in Baehr & Baehr (1993)). Examination of fresh material from the Madras Christian College campus and re-examination of the types of H. aadi revealed that H. aadi is indeed a junior synonym of H. savignyi .

Distribution. H. savignyi is a widespread species known to be distributed from India, Sri Lanka to Philippines (World Spider Catalog 2017).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. General habitus photographs of H. savignyi Lucas, 1836. 1 & 2 male, dorsal view; 3 & 4 female, dorso-lateral view.

FIGURES 5 – 9. Genitalia of H. savignyi Lucas, 1836. 5 left male palp (OUNHM. ART. ARA. 2011.13), prolateral view; 6 same, ventral view; 7 same (OUNHM. ART. ARA. 2011.15), retrolateral view; 8 epigyne (OUNHM. ART. ARA. 2011.20), ventral view; 9 vulva, dorsal view. Abbreviations: E, embolus; LAP, latero-apical process of tegular apophysis.

FIGURES 10 – 13. Genitalia of H. savignyi Lucas, 1836. 10 left male palp, ventral view; 11 same, prolateral view; 12 epigyne, ventral view; 13 vulva, dorsal view. Abbreviations: CO, copulatory opening; E, embolus; LAP, latero-apical process of tegular apophysis; S, spermatheca. Scale bars: (10 – 13) 0.5 mm.