Tarrocanus capra Simon, 1895

Ileperuma Arachchi, Ilesha S. & Benjamin, Suresh P., 2019, The crab spider genus Tarrocanus Simon, 1895 with notes on the genera Alcimochthes Simon, 1895 and Domatha Simon, 1895 (Araneae: Thomisidae), Zootaxa 4613 (3), pp. 587-593 : 589

Tarrocanus capra Simon, 1895

( Figs 1, 4, 6, 7 , 10, 11 )

Tarrocanus capra Simon, 1895: 979 , fig. 1047. (♀ syntype from Sri Lanka, should be in MNHN; not found; species catalogue card not found).

Other material examined. SRI LANKA: North Western Province: 1♂, Kurunegala District , Ethagala FR, 07˚ 28’ 17” N, 80˚ 22’ 30” E, 190 m, hand collecting, 1–28 February 2007, leg. Z. Jaleel (IFS_Tho_233). Central Province: 1♂, Matale District, Bowatenna Forest Reserve , 07˚ 39’ 37” N, 80˚ 41’ 18” E, 252 m, beating vegetation, 10 Febru- ary 2016, leg. S.P. Benjamin et al. ( IFS _Tho_465) .

Diagnosis. Males of T. capra can be unambiguously separated from T. jaffnaensis sp. nov. by the triangular shaped, tooth-like projections on the tubercles of PLEs (also present in females (Simon,1985) and RTS present at the end of the rudimentary RTA ( Figs 7 , 11 ).

Description. Male: Total length 2.5; Prosoma length 1.2, width 1.3; Opisthosoma length 1.3, width 1.4. Overall body colour a mixture of dark and light brown. Prosoma, laterals dark brown, light in the middle, including ocular area and clypeus, steeply slanting towards lateral margin of prosoma. Clypeus vertical and broad. Opisthosoma covered with brown, dull red, and light yellow patches on a pale background and rounded anteriorly and broad and tapered posteriorly, sparsely covered with small setae. Eye tubercles yellowish brown, lateral tubercles enlarged, partly jointed with each other. PLE characteristic with prominent triangular shaped tooth-like projections. Eye measurements: AME 0.09; ALE 0.18; PME 0.11; PLE 0.18; AME-AME 0.19; AME-ALE 0.25; PME-PME 0.23; PME-PLE 0.39. MOA length 0.43, with front width 0.36 and back width 0.59. Legs pale yellow with dull red spots scattered throughout its length, covered with spines sparsely distributed proximally, densely arranged distally, setae on tarsi and meta tarsi. Leg measurements: I: 3.3 (1.1, 0.4, 0.7, 0.6, 0.4); II: 3.6 (1.2, 0.5, 0.8, 0.7, 0.4); III 2.3 (0.7, 0.3, 0.6, 0.4, 0.3); IV: 2.4 (0.9, 0.3, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2). Palp as in Figs 6, 7 , 10, 11 . VTA hook shaped with broad and short stem, RTA not prominent (rudimentary), broad and canoe shaped with a serrated margin dorsally, RTS at the retro lateral margin of the papal tibia next to the RTA. Tegulum oval, embolus long and filiform, running almost a circle around the tegulum.

Female: See Simon (1985); no additional material has been collected since.

Distribution and habitat. Known only from Sri Lanka.

Remarks. Our identification is based on Simon’s (1895) description of the female syntype. Fortunately, he illustrates the characteristic triangular shaped or tooth-like projections on both tubercles of PLEs. This character is present in both males and females. Though we were unable to examine the type of T. capra , the description by Simon (1895) was clear enough for unambiguous identification of the species.

Figures

FIGURES 1–9. 1 Tarrocanus capra (male), Bowatenna Forest Reserve, dorsal view; 2 Tarrocanus jaffnaensis sp. nov (male), Mundathivu, Jaffna, dorsal view; 3 Domatha vivida (male), type specimen (MNHN 11376), dorsal view; 4 Tarrocanus capra (male), lateral view; 5 Tarrocanus jaffnaensis sp. nov (male), lateral view; 6–7 T.capra, left male palp (6 ventral, 7 retrolateral). 8–9 T. jaffnaensis sp. nov., left male palp (8 ventral, 9 retrolateral).Arrows point to the lateral eye tubercles. Scale bars: 0.2 mm (6–9), 1 mm (1–5).

FIGURES 10–17. 10–11 Tarrocanus capra, left male palp (10 ventral, 11 retrolateral); 12–13 Tarrocanus jaffnaensis sp. nov., left male palp (12 ventral, 13 retrolateral); 14–15 Alcimochthes limbatus (14 right male palp, ventral, 15 epigynum, ventral); 16–17 Domatha vivida (MNHN 11376), right male palp (16 ventral, 17 retrolateral). Scale bars: 0.2 mm (10–11, 15–17), 0.3 mm (14), 0.4 mm (12–13).