Tropizodium poonaensis ( Tikader, 1981 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2019

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2019, Transfer of the Indian species formerly included in the genus Lutica Marx, 1891 to Tropizodium Jocqué & Churchill, 2005 and Zodarion Walckenaer, 1826 (Araneae Zodariidae), Zootaxa 4658 (1), pp. 168-174 : 171-172

Tropizodium poonaensis ( Tikader, 1981) comb. nov.

( Fig. 3 A–I)

Lutica poonaensis Tikader, 1981: 139 , figs 5–10 (Description and illustrations of male and female). Type material. Holotype female from INDIA: Maharashtra: Pune (=Poona): flower garden in Pune University compound (18 o 33’16.28’’N, 73 o 49’32.48’’E), 581 m alt.; B.K. Tikader leg.; 28 March 1980; repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (no register number), examined. Paratype (6 females, no register number) and allotype (4 males, no register number) with same data as holotype, examined.

Type material status. The ZSI collection has three glass bottles for this species. The first bottle, labelled as ‘holotype’, contains one female specimen in good condition. The same bottle has a small glass vial containing the dissected genitalia of the holotype. The second bottle labelled as ‘paratype’, contains, instead of six females, five female specimens and one juvenile in good condition. The third bottle, labelled as ‘allotype’, contains four highly bleached males.

Justification of transfer. Tikader (1981) described this species on the basis of six females, four males and a juvenile specimen collected in Maharashtra. Detailed examination of the holotype ( Fig. 3A , C–D) and the paratype ( Fig. 3E ) suggests that this species has all the diagnostic features of Tropizodium : AME largest, small intercheliceral triangle, epigyne posteriorly with central depression and distantly lying globular spermathecae lacking clearly defined copulatory ducts. Based on these observations, we propose to transfer L. poonaensis to Tropizodium .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Tropizodium poonaensis (Tikader, 1981) comb. nov.. A Holotype female habitus, dorsal. B Allotype male habitus, dorsal. C Epigyne of holotype female, ventral. D Vulva of the same, dorsal. E Epigyne of paratype female, ventral. F–H Labels from type bottles. I Original illustrations adopted from Tikader (1981). Scale bars: A–B 1 mm; C–D 0.2 mm; E 0.5 mm.