Sibirocosa alpina Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004

Omelko, Mikhail M. & Marusik, Yuri M., 2013, A survey of East Palaearctic Lycosidae (Araneae). 9. A review of Sibirocosa with a description of three new species, Zootaxa 3666 (3), pp. 319-330 : 320

Sibirocosa alpina Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004

Sibirocosa alpina Marusik et al. 2004: 142 , fig. 250 (Ƥ); Marusik et al. 2007: 269, figs 9–17, 29 (3).

Comments. It has the south-westernmost distribution of all species of the genus. Originally it was described from females from the south of Kazakhstan (Marusik et al. 2004). Later, both sexes of this species were found in Xinjiang and Kyrgyzstan (Marusik et al. 2007). The epigyne of S. alpina is very similar to those of other species of Sibiricosa, but the fovea is shallow and the receptacles rather large. However, the male palp is rather different (cf. figs 9–14 in Marusik et al. 2007). Sibirocosa alpina has a wide embolus as in other congeners, but it is not so thick. It has a well developed palea (strongly reduced in other species) and a small terminal apophysis (massive in other species, larger than the embolus). The species also differs in somatic characters with only 3 or 4 ventral tibial spines compared to 5 or 6 in other species. It is possible that a separate genus needs to be created for this species. Because this species was properly described by Marusik et al. (2007) and unrelated to Siberian and Far Eastern species, we have not reproduced earlier published figures here.