Drassodes haribhaiius ( Patel & Patel, 1975 ), 2020

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Journal of Natural History 54 (21 - 22), pp. 1325-1336 : 1326-1328

Drassodes haribhaiius ( Patel & Patel, 1975) comb. nov.

( Figure 1 (a,b,c))

Phaeocedus haribhaiius Patel & Patel, 1975: 37 , fig. 3A–E.

Type material

Holotype female from INDIA: Gujarat: Kaira: Vallabh Vidhyanagar (22°32 ʹ 51.56 ʹ ’N, 72° 55 ʹ 30.50 ʹ ’E; 41 m alt) ca. 6 km West of Anand, B.H. Patel leg., 3 August 1970, repository NZC-ZSI (no register number), Kolkata, examined.

Justification of the transfer

Patel and Patel (1975) described P. haribhaiius based on a single female specimen collected in Gujarat. The chelicera illustrated for this species ( Patel and Patel 1975: fig. 3D) is provided with both pro- and retromarginal teeth, which clearly indicate that this species is misplaced in Phaeocedus , as members of this genus lack cheliceral teeth ( Platnick and Shadab 1980). Detailed examination of the holotype of this species revealed that it has all the diagnostic features of Drassodes Westring, 1851 as illustrated for Drassodes lapidosus ( Walckenaer, 1802) , the type species of the genus ( Platnick and Shadab 1976: fig. 7): trochanters with deep notch and epigyne with mid-piece and curved lateral margins. Based on these observations, we consider the transfer of P. haribhaiius to Drassodes fully justified.

Supplementary description

Female (holotype, Figure 1 (a)): chelicerae with three promarginal teeth. Body length 8.50. Prosoma length 3.13, width 2.22. Opisthosoma length 5.37, width 3.01. Eye diameters: ALE 0.15. AME 0.17. PLE 0.14. PME 0.21. Eye interdistances: AME–ALE 0.04. AME–AME 0.14. AME–PME 0.13. PME–PLE 0.20. PME–PME 0.06. Length of chelicerae 1.27. Measurements of palp and legs: Palp 2.78 [1.11, 0.41, 0.52, 0.74], I 7.41 [2.26, 1.04, 1.55, 1.43, 1.08], II 6.93 [1.90, 1.11, 1.48, 1.39, 1.05], III 6.41 [1.84, 0.89, 1.29, 1.48, 0.91], IV 8.91 [2.37, 0.99, 1.94, 2.44, 1.17] . Leg formula: 4123. Genitalia ( Figure 1 (b)): epigyne with narrow lateral pouches. Mid-piece less sclerotised. Lateral epigynal margins sclerotised, fused with mid-piece.

Male. Unknown. Remarks

The ZSI collection has two glass bottles for this species, both labelled as ‘holotype’ (3445/18); only one bottle contains a female specimen, which is in good condition and with its genitalia intact.

Figures

Figure 1. Phaeocedus haribhaiius Patel & Patel, 1975 (NZC-ZSI-3445/18), holotype (=Drassodes haribhaiius comb.nov.). (a) female,dorsal view. (b) epigyne.(c) label from type bottle. Scale bars a = 2 mm; b = 0.2 mm.