Oedothorax collinus, MA & ZHU, 1991 INCERTAE

Lin, Shou-Wang, Lopardo, Lara & Uhl, Gabriele, 2022, Evolution of nuptial-gift-related male prosomal structures: taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of the genus Oedothorax (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195, pp. 417-584 : 543

‘OEDOTHORAX’ COLLINUS MA & ZHU, 1991 INCERTAE SEDIS

Oedothorax collinus Ma & Zhu, 1991: 27 , figs 1–9 (Dmf).

Oedothorax collinus Song et al., 1999: 199 , fig. 113F–G, N (mf).

Oedothorax collinus Yin et al., 2012: 542 , fig. 258a–e (mf).

Type material: Holotype: China: Hubei Province, Shennongjia Forestry District, Dayanwu , 1600 m, ♂ 23.vi.1986, leg. Jiuchun Gao (not examined) ; Allotype: ♀, same data (not examined) . Paratype: 1♂ 4♀, same data (not examined); Hubei Province, Shennongjia Forestry District, Hongping , 1610m, 1♀ 1.viii.1986, leg. Jiuchun Gao (not examined). Deposited in the Department of Cellular Biology, Norman Bethune University of Medical Science , Changchun, China .

Non-type material: China: Hunan Province: Sangzhi County, Mt. Tianping, 1♀ 1♂ 18.vi.1981, leg. Tong Xin Wang; Shimen County , Mt. Huping , 2♂ 2♀ 3.viii.2002, leg. Tang Guo. Most of the specimens are deposited in animal specimens collection of Hunan Normal University, School of Life Science (Yin et al. 2012) (not examined) .

Diagnosis:

Males: This species can be identified by the presence of a long, slender palpal tibial retrolateral apophysis and a shorter prolateral apophysis (figs 3–6 in Ma & Zhu, 1991), and the highly elevated post-ocular area with lateral pits (fig. 2 in Ma & Zhu, 1991).

Females: General epigynal morphology similar to that of Oedothorax , but the area anterior to the copulatory openings is elevated (fig. 8 in Ma & Zhu, 1991), which distinguishes it from all species examined in the current study.

Distribution: China: Hunan Province, Hubei Province.

Remarks: As inferred from the drawings of Ma & Zhu (1991) and Yin et al. (2012), this species has a long, slender palpal tibial retrolateral apophysis, an enlarged part of the cymbium above the paracymbial base, a bifurcated paracymbial tip and an embolic division extremely different from the newly delimited Oedothorax in the present study. We suspect that this species does not belong to Oedothorax s.s.. Since all specimens previously deposited in the Department of Cellular Biology, Norman Bethune University of Medical Science are lost (Shuqiang Li, Beijing, personal communication, 2017), and generic assignment based on the descriptions of this species alone is not feasible, the taxonomic state of this species remains dubious.