Plexippus coccineus Simon, 1902

Prószyński, Jerzy, 2017, Remarks on the genus Plexippus C. L. Koch, 1846 (Araneae: Salticidae), Ecologica Montenegrina 13, pp. 39-69 : 55

Plexippus coccineus Simon, 1902

Figures of type specimen not available, misidentified P. “coccineus ” is shown on Figs 4H , 7C

Plexippus coccineus Simon, 1902a: 403

Plexippus coccineus Nenilin, 1985a: 132 (synonymy devoid of any documentation – see Fig. 8 ).

Documentation studied. Summary of world's literature provided by "Monograph of Salticidae ( Araneae ) of the World 1995-2016. Part I & 2" by Prószyński (2016 a, b) and current literature.

Remarks. Plexippus coccineus Simon, 1902a: 403 is unrecognizable from the original description of a single male, collected in Turkomania (historical name of the area between Persia and Georgia, exact meaning in this description is uncertain), original specimen kept in the Simon collection in MNHN-Paris ( Prószyński

1971: 459) was not revised. Synonymy with Plexippus strandi Spassky, 1939 , proposed by Nenilin 3, 1985a: 132 ( Fig. 8 ) is not supported by examination of specimen and diagnostic graphic documentation, therefore is not acceptable. Therefore:

Plexippus coccineus : Nenilin, 1985 - identification not documented, synonymy not accepted.

Plexippus coccineus : Wesolowska, 1996 = Plexippus strandi Spassky, 1939 .

Plexippus coccineus : Metzner, 1999 - misidentified.

3 Knowing personally A.B. Nenilin, young enthusiast who died trying to save his spider collection from fire, I know that at that time he had no slightest chance to study type specimens kept in Paris Museum, he has apparently assumed synonymy of these species because of occurrence in the same geographical area but, with more experience gained in the meantime, we understand that each geographical area may harbor more than one related species of local genera of Salticidae .

Figures

Figure 4a. Diagnostic characters of species of Plexippus. A - Plexippus paykulli (Audouin, 1826) (palp 1/3 larger than remaining species), B - P. gershomi sp. n., C - P. sp. [devorans?? - unlabeled specimen in O. Pickard-Cambridge collection, from a jar with specimens from Palestine], D - P. bhutani Zabka, 1990, D1 - P. minor Wesolowska & van Harten, 2010, E- P. petersi (Karsch, 1878), F - P. tectonicus Prószyński, 2003, G - Plexippus yinae Peng X., Li S., 2003 = P. tectonicus [?], H - Plexippus strandi Spassky, 1939 - from Turkmenistan, K - P. strandi Spassky, 1939, K1 - P. dushanbinus (Andreeva, 1969), L - P. setipes-1 Karsch, 1879, L1 - "P. setipes-2" Peng & Li, 2003, [another palp, hypothetically matching holotype of P. setipes - see Figs 9R-S], M - P. setipes.

Figure 7. Body pattern diversity in Plexippus. A - Plexippus tectonicus Prószyński, 2003, - body and palpal "flag", B - P. gershomi sp. n. - body and palpal "flag, C - P. "coccineus"[?] by Metzner, D - P. strandi Sspassky, 1939 male and female abdomen by Wesołowska, E - P. strandi Spassky, 1939 - male abdomen by Adreeva, F - P. dushanbinus - male body and female abdomen by Andreeva, G - P. similis - female abdomen by Wesołowska, H-I - P. kondarensis (Charitonov, 1951) - body of male by Charitonov and by Logunov & Rakov, J - P. bhutani Zabka, 1990 - male and female, K - P. pokharae Zabka, 19, L - P. yinae Peng & Li, 2003 =[?] P. tectonicus Prószyński, 2003, L1 - P. setipes Karsch 1879 - type from Japan, Prószyński, 1973: 120, f. 61, L2 - P. setipes-2 Peng & Li, 2003, L3 - P. setipes from Vietnam, M - P. paykulli (Audouin, 1826), N - P. baro Wesolowska & Tomasiewicz, 2008, O - P. robustus (Bösenberg & Lenz, 1895), P - P. [?] rubroclypeatus (Lessert, 1927), Q - P. [?] stridulator Pocock, 1899.

Figure 8. Facsimile of diagnostic documentation of nomenclatorical changes postulated by Nenilin (1985: 132), reduced to equation sign (=) only, including Plexippus strandi = P. coccineus.