Zodarion deccanensis ( Tikader & Malhotra, 1976 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2019

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2019, Transfer of the Indian species formerly included in the genus Lutica Marx, 1891 to Tropizodium Jocqué & Churchill, 2005 and Zodarion Walckenaer, 1826 (Araneae Zodariidae), Zootaxa 4658 (1), pp. 168-174 : 173-174

Zodarion deccanensis ( Tikader & Malhotra, 1976) comb. nov.

( Fig. 4 A–H)

Lutica deccanensis Tikader & Malhotra, 1976: 794 , figs 1–5 (Description and illustrations of male and female). Tikader, 1981: 139, figs 1–2 (Illustrations of female).

Type material. Holotype female from INDIA: Maharashtra: Pune (=Poona): Gokhale Nagar: Vetal Hill (18°31’31.76’’N, 73°48’55.38’’E), 705 m alt.; M.S. Malhotra leg.; 21 July 1974; repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (no register number), examined . Allotype (1 male, no register number) with same data as holotype, examined .

Type material status. The ZSI collection has three glass bottles for this species. The first bottle, labelled as ‘holotype’, contains one female specimen with broken legs. The second bottle, labelled as ‘allotype’, contains one highly bleached male. The third bottle, labelled as ‘internal genitalia of L. deccanensis ’, contains the dissected genitalia of the holotype.

Justification of transfer. Tikader and Malhotra (1976) described this species based on one female and one male specimens collected in Maharashtra. Detailed examination of the holotype ( Fig. 4A , C–D) and the allotype ( Fig. 4B, E ) indicates that this species deviates from the diagnostic features of Tropizodium species. The shape of the female prosoma ( Fig. 4A ), shape and orientation of the embolus ( Fig. 4E ), shape of the epigyne ( Fig. 4C ) and shape and orientation of the vulva ( Fig. 4D ) show close similarity with the species of Zodarion Walckenaer, 1826 . Based on these observations, we propose to transfer L. deccanensis to Zodarion .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Zodarion deccanensis (Tikader & Malhotra, 1976) comb. nov.. A Holotype female habitus, dorsal. B Allotype male habitus, dorsal. C Epigyne of holotype female, ventral. D Vulva of the same, dorsal. E Pedipalp of allotype male, prolateral. F–G Labels from type bottles. H Original illustrations adopted from Tikader and Malhotra (1976). Scale bars: A–B 1 mm; C–D 0.2 mm; E 0.5 mm.