Synaphosus parvus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1906 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2020

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2020, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Journal of Natural History 54 (21 - 22), pp. 1325-1336 : 1331-1332

Synaphosus parvus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1906) comb. nov.

( Figure 4 (a,b,c,d))

Phaeocedus parvus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1906: 57 , Plate A, figs 1–3.

Type material

Holotype female from BRITAIN (?) or INDIA (?), E.A. Newbery leg., 1901, repository OUMNH (1726), Oxford, examined based on photographs.

Justification of the transfer

O. Pickard-Cambridge (1906) described P. parvus based on a single female specimen received from E. A. Newbery. The type locality of this species is uncertain, i.e. whether in Britain or India, as Newbery got this specimen from a returned package of damaged British goods from India (O. Pickard-Cambridge 1906). Even though the original illustration of the epigyne of this species is highly schematic, it shows resemblance to the epigyne of Synaphosus syntheticus ( Chamberlin, 1924) , the type species of the genus (compare O. Pickard-Cambridge 1906: fig. A2 with Platnick and Shadab 1980: fig. 42; Ovtsharenko et al. 1994: fig. 15). Detailed examination of the holotype of this species revealed that it has all the diagnostic features of Synaphosus Platnick & Shadab, 1980 : recurved AER and straight PER, both from above, PME largest, AME smallest, epigyne with anterior margins and elaborately twisted spermathecae (see Platnick and Shadab 1980; O. Pickard-Cambridge 1906: fig. 1; herein Figure 4 (a,b)). Based on these observations, we consider the decision to transfer P. parvus to Synaphosus fully justified.

Species transferred to and synonymised in other family

Figures

Figure 4. Phaeocedus parvus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1906 (OUMNH-1726), holotype (=Synaphosus parvus comb. nov.). (a) female, dorsal view; inset eye group enlarged, dorsal view. (b) epigyne. (c, d) labels from type bottle. Scale bars a = 1 mm; b = 0.2 mm. © OUMNH, Oxford.