Evippa baltoroi (Caporiacco, 1935) comb. nov.

Figs 4–5

Pardosa baltoroi Caporiacco, 1935: 233, fig. 17, plate V (♂ ♀; remarks: baltistana in figure legend).

Acantholycosa baltoroi: Roewer 1955: 152 (transfer from Pardosa). Buchar 1976: 202, figs 1–3 (♂ ♀) (misidentification). Chen et al. 1998: 72, figs 13–19 (♂ ♀) (misidentification). Song et al. 1999: 310, fig. 186A, M (♂ ♀) (misidentification), 2001: 226, fig. 138A–D (♂ ♀) (misidentification). Marusik et al. 2004: 112, fig. 60 (♂) (misidentification). Marusik & Omelko 2017: 597, fig. 10 (♂) (misidentification). Zhang et al. 2022: 119, fig. 83A–J (♂ ♀) (misidentification).

Type material. Lectotype ♂ without left palp (here designated) and paralectotypes 1 ♀, 1 juvenile from INDIA: Jammu &Kashmir: Karakoram:in the middle of the Baltoro glacier mass (4300m alt.), leg. Caporiacco, date unknown, repository MSNM (no registration number specified), good at preservation, examined from photographs.

Diagnosis. Evippa baltoroi comb. nov. seem closely similar to Evippa luteipalpis Roewer, 1955 as both share tegular apophysis with short distoventral process, embolus with its proximal part not covered by the tegulum, epigyne with large atria, and median epigynal septum with pentagon-shaped distal part, but can be separated from the latter species by the following combination of features: males by tegulum with a large median process (vs. absent in E. luteipalpis), tegular apophysis with angular apex (vs. blunt in E. luteipalpis), and course of sperm duct less visible ventrally (vs. more visible in E. luteipalpis); females by oval atria (vs. elongate-oval in E. luteipalpis), and median epigynal septum with rectangular proximal part (vs. triangular in E. luteipalpis) (compare Fig. 5A–D with Zamani et al. 2022: figs 57–59).

Supplementary description. Male. Measurements after Caporiacco (1935): body length 7.75. Carapace 4.00 long. Opisthosoma 3.75 long. Palp 5 long. Leg formula: 4123. Palp (lectotype, Fig. 5A–C): cymbium dark brown, apically with macrosetae (Fig. 5B). Visible part of palea round (Fig. 5B). Tegular apophysis short, broad, with beaklike distoventral process (Fig. 5A–C). Tegulum distomedially with a large process, upper part of which lies in close contact with distoventral process of tegular apophysis (Fig. 5A–C). Conductor sclerotized, C-shaped, lying adjacent to and behind tegular apophysis (Fig. 5A–B). Most of embolus hidden by tegulum (Fig. 5B).

Female. Measurements after Caporiacco (1935): body length 11.33. Carapace 5.00 long. Opisthosoma 6.33 long. Palp 6.5 long. Leg formula: 4123. Epigyne (paralectotype, Fig. 5D): hirsute, with paired oval atria, with a median septum with broad, rectangular proximal and pentagon-shaped distal parts.

Distribution. India (Jammu & Kashmir, Caporiacco 1935).

Notes. Examination of the types of P. baltoroi showed that this species does not belong to Acantholycosa, instead it is a member of the genus Evippa due to its genitalic similarities with that of Evippa arenaria (Audouin, 1826), the type species of the genus: male palp with distal part of palea and most of the embolus covered by the tegulum, distoretrolaterally originating tegular apophysis with distoventral process, long conductor lying adjacent to and behind tegular apophysis, epigyne with a median septum and paired atria (compare Fig. 5A–D with Alderweireldt 1991: fig. 2; Armiach Steinpress et al. 2021: figs 6B, 10B). Additionally, highly elevated ocular area of this species due to the prominent transverse depression of carapace behind the ocular area, as proposed in Alderweireldt (1991: fig. 1.2), also supports its transfer to Evippa (Fig. 4A–B). The transfer of A. baltoroi to Evippa confirms that the genus Acantholycosa is not recorded from India.

Examination of the types of P. baltoroi also revealed that Buchar (1976) and the subsequent authors (Chen et al. 1998; Song et al. 1999, 2001; Marusik et al. 2004; Marusik & Omelko 2017; Zhang et al. 2022) misidentified this species, and the species described by these authors as ‘ A. baltoroi ’ indeed represents a different species of Acantholycosa . As a consequence, the baltoroi species group proposed by Marusik et al. (2004) should be renamed.

In addition to the examined types, MSNM has several other syntypes for this species collected from various other glaciers of the Karakoram, but all are badly preserved (M. Zilioli, pers. comm.).