Gnaphosa kankhalae, Biswas & Roy, 2008

Biswas, Bijan & Roy, Rakhi, 2008, Description Of Six New Species Of Spiders Of The Genera Lathys (Family: Dictynidae), Marpissa (Family: Salticidae), Misumenoides (Family: Thomisidae), Agroeca (Family: Clubionidae), Gnaphosa (Family: Gnaphosidae) And Flanona (Family: Lycosidae) - From India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 108 (1), pp. 43-57 : 53

5. Gnaphosa kankhalae sp. novo

( Figs. 13-15 )

General: Cephalothorax and legs are reddish brown, abdomen look like a leopard. Total length 10.50 mm. Carapace 4.50 mm. long, 3.00 mm. wide; abdomen 6.00 mm. long, 3.50 mm. wide.

Cephalothorax: Much longer than wide, gradually narrowing in front, convex, a prominent fovea at the middle of posterior part of the cephalothorax. Middle region of the cephalothorax comparatively light in colour, margin provided with the deep brown markings. A tuft of brownish hair present at the front of the cephalothorax. Two row of eyes, anterior row moderately recurved. Where as posterior row more or less straight or slightly procurved. Posterior median eyes comparatively large, elliptical in shape and pearly white in nature. Antero and postero lateral eyes are close to each other. Sternum nearly oval narrowing posteriorly. Broad labium not convergent in nature. Plate like maxillae with scopulae. Chelicerae strong, inner margin with very smaIJ three and outer margin with moderately big three teeth present. Legs are relatively strong, long and stout clothed with hair. Legs formulae are 4132.

Abdomen: Nearly eIJiptical, clothed with fine hair, beautifully ornamented with black and yellow stripes, like tiger. Ventral side pale yellow with brown dots. Three pairs of spinnerets.

Type species: Holotype female preserved in rectified spirit (70%). Registration number is 5585/18 .

Type-locality: Rishikesh , GarwaIJ Hills, Uttaranchal, India, 25.x.2003, colI. Bijan Biswas.

Distribution: India: Uttaranchal, Rishikesh.

Remarks: Gnaphosa kankhalae Sp. novo is compared with Gnaphosa harpax Cambridge due to their morphological closeness but differs few points as such: (1) Lateral eyes of Gnaphosa harpax Camb. are equal in size where as antero and postero lateral eyes of Gnaphosa kankhalae Sp. novo differs in size. (2) Presance of prominent sigilla is one of the remarkable abdominal characater of Gnaphosa harpax Camb. but completely absent in Gnaphosa kankhalae Sp. novo (3) Epigyne and internal ganitalia differs accordingly in two species.

Figures

Figs. 13 - 15.: (Gnaplwsa kankhalae) sp. novo! i 1 13. Dorsal view (legs are omitted) 14. Epigyne 15. Internal genitalia