Thelcticopis Karsch, 1884

Zhu, Yang, Lin, Ye-Jie & Zhong, Yang, 2020, Two new and one newly recorded species of Thelcticopis Karsch, 1884 (Araneae, Sparassidae) from China, ZooKeys 940, pp. 105-115 : 105

Genus Thelcticopis Karsch, 1884

Type species.

Thelcticopis severa (L. Koch, 1875).

Diagnosis.

The subfamily Sparianthinae is represented in China by two genera: Sagellula Strand, 1942 and Thelcticopis Karsch, 1884. However, most species of both genera have been poorly described so far, and the monophyly of these genera is also debatable as Sagellula xizangensis (Hu, 2001) may be wrongly placed ( Jäger and Yin 2001). Therefore, we just provide a diagnosis between the Chinese Thelcticopis and Sagellula (only S. xizangensis ) species in the current paper. The Chinese Thelcticopis species are most similar to S. xizangensis in having spoon-shaped tegular apophysis in the male palp and median septum in the epigynum ( Hu 2001; fig. 187. 1-4), but can be distinguished from the latter by the following characters: 1, tibia of male palp stout, about 1/3 cymbium length in Thelcticopis , but normal, less than 1/2 cymbium length in S. xizangensis ; 2, retrolateral tibial apophysis complicated, branched in most Thelcticopis species, but simple in S. xizangensis ; 3, spermatheca significantly irregular in most Thelcticopis species, but globular in S. xizangensis ; 4, anterior median eye larger than other eyes in Thelcticopis , but posterior lateral eyes obviously largest in S. xizangensis .

Distribution.

Asia and Pacific zoogeographic regions.