Venator marginatus Hogg, 1900 incerta sedis

(Fig. 6)

Venator marginatus Hogg, 1900, 120–122, plate 17, fig. 4. Rainbow 1911: 274; Roewer 1955: 307; Roewer 1960: 780; McKay 1973: 381; McKay 1985: 87.

Material examined. Holotype. Female, Macedon [37°25’S, 144°34’E, Victoria] (BMNH 1907.2.24.7). Other material examined. New South Wales: 1 female, Llangothlin, near Guyra, 30°08’S, 151°41’E (AM KS85162).

Remarks. Venator marginatus was included in the genus when it was originally established (Hogg 1900); however, somatic and genital morphology do not allow a placement in the genus as reviewed here. It is therefore considered incerta sedis.

In more than 10 years of extensively collecting and studying Australian wolf spiders, I have only managed to examine two specimens of this species, the holotype and a second female from northern New South Wales (Fig. 7). The male remains unknown and therefore it is impossible to provide a generic placement for this species, in particular taking the still poor taxonomic resolution of Australian Lycosinae into account. However, an up-to-date illustration of the epigyne of the holotype is provided here (Fig. 6) to allow identification when further specimens of V. marginatus are collected. Colouration is similar to the species in Venator; however, genital morphology is unusual in that the epigyne is wider than long, although the median septum displays the overall common general inverted T-shape of females in the subfamily Lycosinae (Fig. 6).