Pholcus fragillimus Strand, 1907

Huber, Bernhard A., Colmenares, Pío A. & Ramirez, Martin J., 2014, Fourteen new generic and ten new specific synonymies in Pholcidae (Araneae), and transfer of Mystes Bristowe to Filistatidae, Zootaxa 3847 (3), pp. 413-422 : 420

Pholcus fragillimus Strand, 1907

Pholcus fragillimus Strand, 1907: 126 –128 (♂♀). Huber 2011a: 415 –417, figs. 1924–26, 1956–58, 2017–21 (♂♀). Pholcus okinawaensis Irie, 2002: 141 –143, figs. 1–7 (♂♀). Irie 2009: 108, figs. (2-2-13) 21–23. Synonymized by Huber (2011a).

Pholcus acerosus Peng & Zhang, 2011: 1 –3, figs. 1a–g (♂♀); new synonymy.

Justification of synonymy. Peng & Zhang’s (2011) drawings show most of the distinctive characters of Pholcus fragillimus (three pairs of frontal apophyses on male chelicerae; large scales on uncus; male palpal tarsus elongation; procursus shape; long hairs on high male ocular area; epigynum shape; see also figs. 2017–2021 in Huber 2011a). A re-examination (by BAH) of 1♂ 1♀ paratypes of Pholcus acerosus (from Hainan Island, China; deposited in MHBU) also revealed the presence of the distinctive semitransparent process on the appendix.

Note. Strand’s (1907) description of Pholcus fragillimus is based on specimens from Sri Lanka, it is written in German, and it provides no illustrations. Irie (2002) was the first to provide illustrations, but he also failed to recognize the species and created a synonym ( Pholcus okinawaensis ). It was only in the same year of Peng & Zhang’s publication that the identity of Pholcus fragillimus became finally known ( Huber 2011a). It is widely distributed in southern and eastern Asia (fig. 1979 in Huber 2011a).