Hippasa himalayensis Gravely, 1924

Fig. 14, 37

Hippasa himalayensis Gravely, 1924: 593, fig. 1A (♀). Tikader & Malhotra 1980: 281, figs 80–82 (♀).

Type material. Lectotype ♀ from INDIA: West Bengal (Eastern Himalayas): Darjeeling: Sevoke / Sevok / Sivok (26°53'N, 88°28'E; 304 m alt. (= 1000 ft.)), 5-6-1912, Lord Carmichael’s collection, repository NZC-ZSI (2268/18), examined . Paralectotype ♀♀ (of unknown number) with same data as previous collection except no register, examined .

Other material examined. INDIA: West Bengal (Eastern Himalayas): Kalimpong (formerly part of Darjeeling), (27°03'N, 88°27'E; 182-457 m alt. (= 600-1500 ft.)), date unknown, collector unknown: 1 ♀ (NZC-ZSI 5165 /H2); Western Himalayas, date unknown, collector unknown: 1 ♀ (NZC-ZSI, no register number specified) .

Diagnosis. Females of H. himalayensis are most similar to the females of H. australis Lawrence, 1927 as both share a trapezoid median plate of the epigyne with a large atrium, but can be separated from the latter by the triangular atrium (vs. inverted flower vase-shaped in H. australis, compare Fig. 14C with Alderweireldt & Jocqué 2005: fig. 21).

Supplementary description. Female in ethanol (lectotype, NZC-ZSI 2268/18, Fig. 14A–B). Body length 10.38. Carapace 5.00 long, 3.69 wide. Opisthosoma 5.38 long, 3.53 wide. Eye sizes and interdistances: ALE 0.18, AME 0.20, PLE 0.29, PME 0.32; AME–ALE 0.11, AME–AME 0.12, AME–PME 0.20, PLE–PLE 0.97, PME–PLE 0.36, PME–PME 0.33. Clypeus height at AMEs 0.28, at ALEs 0.27. Length of chelicerae 2.11. Measurements of palp and legs: palp 6.48 [2.14, 1.09, 1.35, 1.90], I 15.44 [4.18, 1.80, 3.47, 3.87, 2.12], II (right) 14.99 [4.21, 1.78, 3.13, 3.91, 1.96], III 14.52 [4.39, 1.69, 3.27, 3.42, 1.75], IV ---- [5.39, 1.86, 4.48, 6.46, ----]. Genitalia (Fig. 14C–D): epigyne clothed in bushy setae (Fig. 14C), with trapezoid median and short lateral plates (Fig. 14C); median plate with a large, triangular atrium leading to a short hood internally (Fig. 14C–D). Spermathecal stalks short, with retrolaterally oriented proximal and prolaterally oriented distal parts (Fig. 14D). Accessory glands globular, with short stalk (Fig. 14D). Spermathecae peanut-shaped, posteriorly directed (Fig. 14D). Fertilization ducts anteriorly directed, diverging.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. India: Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal (Gravely 1924; Tikader & Malhotra 1980) (Fig. 37).

Remarks. Even though Sinha (1951) mentioned that a lot of specimens of H. himalayensis were deposited in the Indian Museum collection (which was later transferred to ZSI), the NZC-ZSI currently holds only three glass bottles, and the remaining ones may either be lost or misplaced elsewhere in the collection. A bottle contains a female specimen in good condition with intact genitalia (5165/H2), which is labeled as ‘ H. himalayana formerly H. olivacea ’ and was re-determined by T.B. Sinha. A second bottle contains a female specimen in bad condition with intact genitalia (no register number specified), which is labeled as ‘ H. himalayensis Gravely ?’ and was determined by T.B. Sinha. A third bottle (5163/112) contains two females in good condition, with broken legs and intact genitalia. The same bottle has a separate tube labeled as ‘lectotype’ (2268/18), containing a female in good condition with intact genitalia. This lectotype might have been designated by Sinha (1951) by selecting a specimen from Lord Carmichael’s collection that was made from the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Since the specimens in the former two bottles were determined/re-determined by T.B. Sinha, we presume that the two female specimens in the third bottle represent the syntypes of H. himalayensis . We dissected the genitalia of one of these syntypes for the present study.