Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2021, Revision of Indian wolf spiders: I. Genus Arctosa C. L. Koch, 1847 (Araneae Lycosidae, Tricassinae), Zootaxa 4908 (4), pp. 489-504 : 490-491

Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980

Figs 1–4

Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980: 369 , figs 238–241. Tikader & Biswas 1981: 59, plate VIII, figs 96–97. Biswas & Biswas 1992: 438. Majumder 2005: 26. Dhali et al. 2012: 1200. Dhali et al. 2017: 77, plate XXIII, figs 389–393. Arctosa tappaensis Gajbe, 2004: 31 , figs 40–44. New synonymy

Type material. A. himalayensis . Female holotype from INDIA: Uttarakhand: Dehradun (formerly in Uttar Pradesh): Bank of Asan River ; R. N. Chopra leg.; 26 October 1971; repository NZC-ZSI (4654/18), examined. Female paratype and male allotype with same data as holotype, examined. A. tappaensis . Female holotype from INDIA: Chhattisgarh: Rajnandgaon (formerly in Madhya Pradesh): Dongargaon : Tappa (21°04’37.09’’N, 80°49’33.16’’E), 343 m alt.; U.A. Gajbe leg.; 22 December 1983; repository NZC-ZSI (no register number specified), examined. Female paratype and male allotype with same data as holotype, examined .

Other material examined: 3 females from INDIA: Madhya Pradesh: Jabalpur: Rani Durgawati Samadhi (23°01’07.66’’N, 79°59’36.16’’E), 419 m alt.; V. V. Rao leg.; 29 April 1970; repository NZC-ZSI (no register number) .

Diagnosis. Arctosa himalayensis seem closely related to Arctosa springiosa Yin, Wang, Xie & Peng, 1993 as both share a median apophysis with wide apex and a median septum with broad posterior part. It can be separated from the latter by nearly straight median apophysis, which is downwardly directed in A. springiosa , and spermathecae with short, wide stalks, whereas A. springiosa has globular spermathecae with slender stalks (compare Figs 2 B–F, 4B–G to Yin et al. 2012: fig. 403b–e).

Supplementary description. Male (allotype, Fig. 1C ). Fovea vertical, dark. Cheliceral promargin with two teeth, retromargin with three. Body length 6.31. Prosoma length 3.62, width 2.53. Opisthosoma length 2.69, width 1.83. Eye diameters: ALE 0.11. AME 0.13. PLE 0.27. PME 0.29. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.04. AME–AME 0.10. PLE–PLE 0.54. PME–PLE 0.23. PME–PME 0.21. Chelicerae length 1.70. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.12, at AMEs 0.10. Measurements of pedipalp and legs. Pedipalp (right) 3.93 [1.36, 0.79, 0.56, 1.22], I (right) 7.58 [2.30, 0.93, 1.71, 1.78, 0.86], II 7.48 [2.12, 1.21, 1.25, 1.92, 0.98], III (right) 7.28 [1.94, 1.12, 1.46, 1.72, 1.04], IV (right) 10.93 [2.99, 1.46, 2.02, 3.05, 1.41]. Leg formula: 4123. Pedipalp as in Figs 2 A–C.

Female (holotype, Fig. 1A ). Same as male except the following: body length 7.86. Prosoma length 4.51, width 3.31. Opisthosoma length 3.35, width 2.84. Eye diameters: ALE 0.16. AME 0.17. PLE 0.23. PME 0.25. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.07. AME–AME 0.10. PLE–PLE 0.68. PME–PLE 0.27. PME–PME 0.21. Chelicerae length 2.26. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.24, at AMEs 0.22. Measurements of palp and legs. Palp 3.57 [1.18, 0.69, 0.67, 1.03], I 8.99 [2.61, 1.49, 1.83, 1.97, 1.09], II 7.91 [2.30, 1.39, 1.41, 1.81, 1.00], III 7.51 [2.00, 1.37, 1.22, 1.95, 0.97], IV 9.60 [3.02, 1.61, 2.12, 1.83, 1.02]. Leg formula: 4123. Epigynum as in Fig. 2D .

Measurements of paratype female ( Fig. 1B ). Body length 8.87. Prosoma length 4.25, width 3.10. Opisthosoma length 4.62, width 3.01. Genitalia as in Fig. 2 E–F.

Justification of the synonymy. Gajbe (2004) described A. tappaensis based on a male and two females collected in Chhattisgarh. Since the type material of this species show no significant differences with those of A. himalayensis , we consider A. tappaensis as a junior synonym of A. himalayensis (compare Fig. 2 A–F with Fig. 4 A–G).

Remarks. The NZC-ZSI collection has three glass tubes for A. himalayensis . A tube labelled ‘holotype’ (4654/18) contains one female in good condition, with intact genitalia. A second tube, labelled ‘paratype’ (4655/18), contains one female in good condition (but the label mentions two paratype specimens). The same tube has a small glass vial with the dissected genitalia. A third tube, labelled ‘allotype’ (4656/18), contains one male specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs and missing the left pedipalp. The NZC-ZSI collection has two glass tubes for A. tappaensis . A first tube, labelled ‘ paratype and allotype’ (no register number), contains one female holotype, one male allotype and one juvenile (possibly the paratype) specimens, all in good condition. The same tube has a small glass vial that contains the dissected genitalia of the female holotype. A second tube is labelled ‘ Arctosa tappaensis ’ (no register number) and contains three female specimens in good condition, with intact genitalia.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980. A female holotype habitus, dorsal. B female paratype habitus, dorsal. C male allotype habitus, dorsal. D–F labels from type tubes. Scale bars: A–C, 2 mm.

FIGURE 2. Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980. A–C male allotype, right pedipalp: A ventral, B ventral, enlarged; C retrolateral, enlarged. D female holotype, epigynum, ventral. E–F female paratype, genitalia: E epigynum, ventral, F vulva, dorsal. Scale bars: A, 0.5 mm; B–F, 0.2 mm.

FIGURE 3. Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980, types of Arctosa tappaensis Gajbe, 2004. A female holotype habitus, dorsal. B male allotype habitus, dorsal. C label from type tube. D label from non-type tube. Scale bars: A–B, 2 mm.

FIGURE 4. Arctosa himalayensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1980, types of Arctosa tappaensis Gajbe, 2004. A–C male allotype, left pedipalp: A ventral, B ventral, enlarged; C retrolateral, enlarged. D–E female holotype, genitalia: D epigynum, ventral, E vulva, dorsal. F–G genitalia of non-type female: F epigynum, ventral, G vulva, dorsal. Scale bars: A, 0.5 mm; B–G, 0.2 mm.