Melecosa, Marusik, Yuri M., Omelko, Mikhail M. & Koponen, Seppo, 2015

Marusik, Yuri M., Omelko, Mikhail M. & Koponen, Seppo, 2015, A survey of East Palaearctic Lycosidae (Araneae). 11. Two new genera from the Acantholycosa complex, Zootaxa 3985 (2), pp. 252-264 : 263

Acantholycosa “complex of genera”

Judging by the copulatory organs, the genera whose species were previously considered to belong in Acantholycosa are not closely related to one another and do not form a monophyletic group. Therefore, we cannot provide a taxonomic status for this group and instead apply the formal term “complex of genera”. This complex cannot be defined as Pardosinae, with more than 3 pairs of ventral spines on tibia I, because some Pardosa have 4 pairs of ventral spines, whereas Melecosa gen. n. has only 3 pairs. Notably, Afro-Asian Passiena Thorell, 1890 has 6 pairs of ventral spines, but its palp and epigyne are very different from the Acantholycosa complex genera. Below, we provide a dichotomous key to six genera considered in the Acantholycosa complex and a polytomous key to eight genera of Palaearctic Pardosinae ( Table 1 ). Polytomous keys do not allow the separation of Caspicosa and Pardosa because Pardosa is not monophyletic and contains unrelated species and Caspicosa has not been properly studied.