Sphingius caniceps Simon, 1906

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, A review of the genus Sphingius Thorell, 1890 from India (Araneae: Liocranidae), Zootaxa 4896 (4), pp. 505-522 : 512

Sphingius caniceps Simon, 1906

Sphingius caniceps Simon, 1906: 301 ; Dankittipakul et al., 2011: 19 , figs 38–39.

Type material. Syntypes (1 adult ♀ and 1 juvenile ♀) from INDIA: Tamil Nadu: Coromandel coast: Villupuram: Gingee / Senji (12°15’09.33’’N, 79°25’00.52’’E), 87 m a.s.l., leg. M.M. Maindron, 1901, deposited in MNHN (17599), not examined. Dankittipakul et al. (2011: figs 38–39) illustrated the syntype female epigynum, which is diagnostic .

Diagnosis. Females of S. caniceps seem closely related to the females of S. vivax (Thorell, 1897) , but can be separated from the latter by a circular epigynal atrium (oval in S. vivax ) and a wide plate-like anterior epigynal hood (triangular in S. vivax ) (compare fig. 4 with fig. 38 in Dankittipakul et al. 2011).

Note. In his original description, Simon (1906) mentioned the type locality of S. caniceps as “Côte de Coromandel: Genji” (see also Dankittipakul et al. 2011). The place with the spelling ‘Genji’ is a village in the Dungarpur district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. However, the Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent that forms a part of the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. There is a place with the spelling “Gingee” in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. So, it can be concluded that the type locality of S. caniceps should be “Gingee”, which is in Tamil Nadu, and not “Genji” in Rajasthan (see also Majumder & Tikader 1991). Moreover, M. M. Maindron collected this species during his expedition to southern India in 1901, which also confirms “Gingee” as its type locality. Gravely (1931) and Majumder and Tikader (1991) misidentified their specimens as S. caniceps , but they do in fact belong to an undescribed Sphingius species (see below).

Male. Unknown.