Sphingius nilgiriensis Gravely, 1931

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, A review of the genus Sphingius Thorell, 1890 from India (Araneae: Liocranidae), Zootaxa 4896 (4), pp. 505-522 : 512-514

Sphingius nilgiriensis Gravely, 1931

Fig. 6

Sphingius nilgiriensis Gravely, 1931: 271 , fig. 19C; Majumder & Tikader, 1991: 155, figs 330–333.

Type material. Syntype Ƌ from INDIA: Tamil Nadu: Nilgiris: Kundah (not Kundahs): (11°15’46.41’’N, 76°37’59.98’’E), 1856 m a.s.l., leg. Barnes, 24 September–3 October 1925, deposited in NZC-ZSI (no register number), examined ( Fig. 6G ) .

Diagnosis. Males of S. nilgiriensis seem closely related to the males of S. superbus Dankittipakul, Tavano & Singtripop, 2011 , but can easily be separated from the latter by group of bristles located on the proximal part of ventral scutum which are restricted to the rear end of the posterior margin of ventral scutum in S. superbus (compare Fig. 6D with Dankittipakul et al. 2011: fig. 5).

Supplementary description. Male ( Fig. 6 A–D). Dorsal scutum covering almost entire length of opisthosoma; ventral scutum smaller than dorsal scutum, less sclerotized; posterior half of venter medially bears group of bristles ( Fig. 6D ). Body length 5.26. Carapace length 2.33, width 1.85. Opisthosoma length 2.93, width 1.34. Eye diameters: ALE 0.11, AME 0.06, PLE 0.09, PME 0.08. Eye interdistances: ALE–PLE 0.09, AME–ALE 0.03, AME–AME 0.05, AME–PME 0.10, PME–PLE 0.08, PME–PME 0.05. Chelicerae length 0.79. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.07, at AMEs 0.08. Measurements of pedipalp and legs. Pedipalp 1.88 [0.73, 0.32, 0.29, 0.54], I 5.74 [1.59, 0.85, 1.30, 1.10, 0.90], II 4.88 [1.50, 0.78, 1.07, 0.97, 0.56], III 4.56 [1.23, 0.69, 0.84, 1.06, 0.74], IV 7.32 [2.03, 0.96, 1.58, 1.83, 0.92]. Leg formula: 4123. Pedipalp ( Fig. 6 E–F, H): retrolateral tibial apophysis short, broad at base, gradually narrowing towards apex ( Fig. 6F : RTA). Accessory tegular apophysis short, flat, angular in retrolateral view ( Fig. 6E : TA). Embolus moderately long, thin, with blunt tip ( Fig. 6E : E). Median tegular apophysis large, with retrolateral process with truncated apex ( Fig. 6E : MA). Conductor apparently absent.

Female. Unknown.

Note. In his original description, Gravely (1931) mentioned that the most conspicuous feature of S. nilgiriensis was a white membraneous structure in its pedipalp. It is, in fact, the haematodocha of the expanded pedipalp ( Fig. 6E : H).

Remarks. The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for this species labelled as “ Type ” (1514/18), containing a male specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs and with intact pedipalps.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Sphingius nilgiriensis Gravely, 1931, syntype Ƌ. A habitus, dorsal. B prosoma, prolateral. C eye group, dorsal. D opisthosoma showing group of bristles, ventral. E left expanded pedipalp, oblique ventral. F left retrolateral tibial apophysis, retrolateral. G labels from type bottle. H original illustration adopted from Gravely (1931). Abbreviations: E embolus, H haematodocha, MA median tegular apophysis, RTA retrolateral tibial apophysis, TA accessory tegular apophysis. Scale bars:A, 2 mm; B, 1 mm; C–D, 0.5 mm; E–F, 0.2 mm.