Indozodion Ovtchinnikov, 2006

Zamani, Alireza & Marusik, Yuri M., 2022, New taxonomic data on Zodariinae (Araneae: Zodariidae) of Azerbaijan, Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan, Zootaxa 5155 (3), pp. 423-438 : 424

Genus Indozodion Ovtchinnikov, 2006 stat. rev.

Indozodion Ovtchinnikov, 2006: 77 .

Type species. Indozodion inayatullahi Ovtchinnikov, 2006 , from Pakistan .

Comments. Based on the similarities of different parts of the copulatory organs, including the palpal tibia, cymbium and embolus in males, and the shape of receptacles in the weakly sclerotized epigyne in females, this genus was synonymized with Tropizodium Jocqué & Churchill, 2005 by Dankittipakul et al. (2012). Considering the unusual, disjunct generic distribution resulted from the noted synonymy (i.e. northwestern Pakistan, Hainan [southernmost China], south to Australia and French Polynesia, Hawaii), and the diverse morphology of the palps in species considered in the genus, we do not consider this taxonomic act justified.

Tropizodium peregrinum Jocqué & Churchill, 2005 (the generotype described from Australia) differs from I. inayatullahi in the following characters (those of the latter noted in parentheses): 1) embolus short, almost straight, originating at a 10 o’clock position (vs. long embolus, originating at about 7 o’clock position and making a course of about 180º), and 2) the lack of conductor (vs. present). Therefore, we hereby remove Indozodion from the synonymy of Tropizodium . It is noteworthy that the type material of I. inayatullahi were not located in ZMMU (K. G. Mikhailov, pers. comm.), where they are supposed to be deposited according to Ovtchinnikov (2006).

Composition. Two species: Indozodion inayatullahi comb. rev. and I. lindbergi ( Roewer, 1960) comb. n.

Distribution. Northwestern to northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.