Sphingius sinensis ( Schenkel, 1963 )

Zhang, Feng, Fu, Jian-Ying & Zhu, Ming-Sheng, 2009, Spiders of the genus Sphingius (Araneae: Liocranidae) from China, with description of two new species, Zootaxa 2298, pp. 31-44 : 38-40

Sphingius sinensis ( Schenkel, 1963)

( Figs. 13–20 )

Scotophaeoides sinensis Schenkel, 1963: 49 , f. 24; Song, Zhu & Chen, 1999: 454; Song, Zhu & Zhang, 2004: 209, f. 124A–C; Murphy, 2007: 589, f. 596–597. New combination.

Diagnosis. This species is similar to Sphingius songi Deeleman-Reinhold, 2001 (cf. Deeleman-Reinhold, 2001, 499, figs. 855–856), both of them with smooth female carapace, globose spermatheca and oval bursa, but can be distinguished from the latter by having copulatory openings with smaller opening radius, epigyne with two small anterior hoods, and by the shape and length of the copulatory duct.

Redescription. Female (from Guangxi). Body length 3.22–3.98. One specimen was measured, total length 3.84: carapace 1.76 long, 1.44 wide; abdomen 2.07 long, 1.40 wide. Carapace nearly ovoid in dorsal view, light brown, surface smooth, without granulations on margin. Thoracic groove line-shaped, somewhat reduced, fronted by a dark triangular mark. Eyes in two transverse rows; AER slightly recurved, PER straight in dorsal view ( Fig. 13 ). Eye diameters: AME 0.08, ALE 0.09, PME 0.10, PLE 0.09. Eye interdistances: AME–AME 0.10, AME–ALE 0.10, PME–PME 0.13, PME–PLE 0.10; MOA 0.20 long, front width 0.23, back width 0.32. Chelicerae with three promarginal and two retromarginal teeth. Endites, labium and sternum light brown. Sternum shield-shaped, without granulations on surface, lateral margin with precoxal triangles and intercoxal sclerites. Space above the coxae and below the carapace with longitudinal, sclerotized pleural bars. Leg spination: femora I-IV with one small dorsal spine, tibia III v2-2 -1, p0-1-0; metatarsus III v0-2-0; tibia IV v1-1 -2, metatarsus IV v1-1 -0. Leg formula: 4123 ( Table 3).

Femur Patella Tibia Metatarsus Tarsus Total I 1.48 0.58 0.99 0.85 0.81 4.71 II 1.13 0.58 0.72 0.76 0.72 3.91 III 0.81 0.49 0.59 0.58 0.56 3.03 IV 1.58 0.63 0.99 1.49 0.95 5.64 Abdomen lacking dorsal or ventral scuta, dorsum dark gray, and with two pairs of muscular impressions; venter with two rows of longitudinal line segments, spinnerets at the end of the abdomen.

Epigyne as illustrated ( Figs. 18–20 ). Epigynal plate with two small atrial hoods and indistinct impressions anteriorly. Copulatory openings concave, expanded to funnel-shaped ducts connecting the bursae and spermathecae. Bursae, small, nearly globose, situated beneath but ectal to the copulatory openings; spermathecae posterior, large, globose to kidney-shaped, copulatory ducts thick and long.

Distribution. China (Guangxi, Guangdong)

Type material. Holotype female, collected from Canton (now known as Guangdong), January 12, 1925, deposited in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, examined and re-illustrated in detail by Murphy (2007).

Material examined. CHINA: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning City, 1♀, July 1989, Y. Q. Zhang leg.; Nanning City, 3♀, August 1982, Y. Q. Zhang leg. ( MHBU) .

Remarks. The genus Scotophaeoides was established by Schenkel (1963) and for more than 40 years remained monotypic, and only known from a single female, the holotype of Scotophaeoides sinensis Schenkel, 1963 , collected from Canton. In 1986, Prof. Da-Xiang Song examined Schenkel’s type specimen deposited in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and illustrated the eye region and chelicerae, but limited by various conditions, he maintained it in Gnaphosidae . Song et al. (2004) later mentioned the species, but only referred to the original description. However, in his original sketches (kept in Hebei University), there is an anterior view of the chelicerae, which indicates that this species is similar to some Corinnidae . Murphy examined the single type specimen, and stated that S. sinensis was not a gnaphosid but possibly a Castianeirine, Corinnidae ( Murphy 2007) .

Species of the genus Sphingius resemble, to some extent, Castianeira Keyserling in general appearance. For example, both mimic ants, but Sphingius differs from the latter by the male palp with median apophysis, embolus and conductor, while in the latter the male palp has only one outgrowth, the embolus.

While examining the spider specimens collected from Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, by Prof. Yongqiang Zhang, we found four female specimens (see above), whose genital organs were identical to those of S. sinensis , while other characters also conformed to the diagnostic characters of the genus Sphingius . We also considered the geographic distribution (Guangdong is next to Guangxi), and therefore here transfer the species Scotophaeoides sinensis to Sphingius , thus placing Scotophaeoides as a junior synonym of Sphingius .

Figures

FIGURES 13 – 20. Sphingius sinensis (Schenkel, 1963). 13. Female body, dorsal view. 14. Female abdomen, ventral view. 15. Endites, labium and sternum of female, ventral view. 16. Female left leg III, lateral view. 17. Eye region of male, dorsal view. 18. Epigyne, ventral view. 19. Vulva, dorsal view. 20. Vulva, dorsal view (another specimen). acb = apical combing brush; b = bursa; h = hood; is = intercoxal sclerites; pt = precoxal triangles; s = spermatheca; tdm = triangular dark marking; tg = thoracic groove. Scale bars: 1 mm (13 – 16); 0.5 mm (17 – 20).