Monoblemma browni Shear, 1978

Sankaran, Pradeep M. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2016, A checklist of Indian armored spiders (Araneae, Tetrablemmidae) with the description of a new species from the Western Ghats, Zootaxa 4084 (3), pp. 443-450 : 447-448

Monoblemma browni Shear, 1978 comb. rev.

Monoblemma browni Shear, 1978: 23 , figs. 57–61(Description and illustration of male [male holotype from MADAGASCAR: Périnet; W. L. Brown leg.; March 1969; deposited in AMNH]).

Shearella browni: Lehtinen, 1981: 54 (Brief description of male holotype; transfer).

Justification of the transfer: Shear (1978) described this species as Monoblemma browni on the basis of a single male from Madagascar. Lehtinen (1981) transferred this species to Shearella . Judging from the original description and illustrations of the male ( Shear 1978), this species better fits the diagnostic features of Monoblemma than those of Shearella : it has a less compact eye group which is not elevated on a conical tubercle in the male, male chelicerae with short curving apophysis, clypeus with a pair of setae, and palpal bulb piriform, with long unmodified embolus. The features mentioned by Lehtinen to distinguish this species from M. unicum Gertsch, 1941 are merely species-specific and are not sufficient enough to alter its generic combination. Lehtinen pointed out that this species is not very close to S. lilawati and S. selvarani . He suggested to establish a new genus to accommodate this species, which, however, will be delayed until the discovery of females. Until then, it is better to include this species in Monoblemma rather than in Shearella .