Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2021, Notes on Indian wolf spiders: I. Genus Evippa Simon, 1882 (Araneae: Lycosidae Evippinae), Zootaxa 4975 (1), pp. 159-175 : 164-166

Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980

Figs 4–6

Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980: 312 , figs 138–142.

Type material. Female holotype from INDIA: Maharashtra: Pune (= Poona): Shivajinagar (= Shivaji Nagar) (18°31’53.19’’N, 73°50’40.42’’E), 558 m alt.; M.S. Malhotra leg.; 29 September 1974; repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (4645/18), examined. Female paratype and two male allotypes, with same data as the holotype, examined .

Diagnosis. Males of E. shivajii are similar to the males of Evippa arenaria ( Audouin, 1826) as both have a stout, bifid median apophysis, but can be distinguished from the latter by a claw-like prolateral protrusion of the median apophysis, which is straight in E. arenaria (compare Fig. 5C with Alderweireldt 1991: fig. 2.1). Females are similar to the females of Evippa aequalis Alderweireldt, 1991 in having balloon-like spermathecae, but can be separated from the latter by narrow proximal part of the median septum of the epigynum, which is comparatively wide in E. aequalis (compare Fig. 6A–C with Alderweireldt 1991: figs 3.4–5).

Supplementary description. Male (allotype, Fig. 4C ). Body length 4.35. Prosoma length 2.22, width 1.72. Opisthosoma length 2.13, width 1.31. Eye diameters: ALE 0.06. AME 0.11. PLE 0.41. PME 0.31. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.04. AME–AME 0.06. PLE–PLE 0.54. PLE–PME 0.40. PME–PME 0.29. Chelicerae length 0.70. Clypeus height at ALE 0.13, at AME 0.12. Measurements of pedipalp and legs (all right). Pedipalp (right) 2.78 [0.90, 0.48, 0.56, 0.84], I 7.87 [2.10, 0.86, 1.82, 2.05, 1.04], II --- [2.08, 0.82, 1.56, ---, ---], III --- [2.05, 0.73, 1.67, 1.49, ---], IV --- [2.83, 0.91, 2.54, 3.76, ---]. Pedipalp as in Fig. 5A–D .

Female (holotype, Fig. 4A ). Body length 5.23. Prosoma length 2.44, width 2.08. Opisthosoma length 2.79, width 2.01. Eye diameters:ALE 0.08. AME 0.13. PLE 0.30. PME 0.32. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.03. AME– AME 0.09. PLE–PLE 0.63. PLE–PME 0.44. PME–PME 0.35. Chelicerae length 0.98. Clypeus height at ALE 0.16, at AME 0.15. Measurements of palp and legs. Palp (right) 2.97 [1.01, 0.52, 0.56, 0.88], I --- [2.40, 1.05, 2.03, ---, ---], II ---, III 8.09 [2.17, 0.92, 1.81, 2.21, 0.98], IV ---. Genitalia as in Fig. 6A . Paratype ( Fig. 4B ) genitalia as in Fig. 6B–C .

Remarks. The NZC-ZSI collection has three glass tubes for this species. A tube labeled as ‘holotype’ (4645/18) contains one female specimen in good condition, with broken legs and intact genitalia. A second tube labeled as ‘paratype’ (4646/18) contains one female specimen in good condition, with broken legs. The same tube has a small glass vial containing the dissected genitalia. A third tube labeled as ‘allotype’ (4647/18) contains two male specimens in fairly good condition, with broken legs. The left pedipalp of one of these specimens was found removed and kept in this tube. In the original description, single register number was assigned for both the holotype, the paratype and the allotypes ( Tikader & Malhotra 1980). However, the labels in the type tubes mention separate registration numbers for each.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980. A holotype female habitus (NZC-ZSI-4645/18), dorsal. B paratype female habitus (NZC-ZSI-4646/18), dorsal. C allotype male habitus (NZC-ZSI-4647/18), dorsal. D–F labels from type tubes. Scale bars: A–B, 2 mm; C, 1 mm.

FIGURE 5. Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980. A–D allotype male left pedipalp (NZC-ZSI-4647/18): A ventral; B prolateral enlarged; C ventral enlarged; D retrolateral enlarged. Scale bars: A, 0.5 mm; B–D, 0.2 mm.

FIGURE 6. Evippa shivajii Tikader & Malhotra, 1980. A holotype epigynum without clearing (NZC-ZSI-4645/18), ventral. B–C genitalia of paratype female (NZC-ZSI-4646/18): B epigynum, ventral; C vulva, dorsal. Scale bars: A–C, 0.2 mm.