Hitobia singhi ( Tikader & Gajbe, 1976 ) Sankaran & Caleb & Sebastian, 2021

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2021, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: IV. Genera Apodrassodes Vellard, 1924, Herpyllus Hentz, 1832 and Sergiolus Simon, 1892 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Journal of Natural History 54 (43 - 44), pp. 2839-2857 : 2852-2854

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222933.2020.1871523

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E487C5-441B-2322-FE8C-9107FE0DFBAB

treatment provided by

Marcus

scientific name

Hitobia singhi ( Tikader & Gajbe, 1976 )
status

comb. nov.

Hitobia singhi ( Tikader & Gajbe, 1976) View in CoL comb. nov. ( Figure 8 View Figure 8 )

Sergiolus singhi Tikader & Gajbe, 1976: 189 View in CoL , figs 10–13 (♀). Tikader 1982: 445, figs 338–342 (♀). Gajbe 2007: 474, figs 146–150 (♀).

Sergiolus singhii Brignoli, 1983: 577 (lapsus).

Type material

Holotype female from INDIA: Karnataka: Tumakuru (=Tumkur): Chiknayakanhalli Taluk: Bellara: Forest Lodge Compound, N.P. Singh leg., 30 October 1975, repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (no register number), examined.

Justification of the transfer

Detailed examination of the type of S. singhi revealed that it lacks diagnostic features of Sergiolus (see previous paragraph on H. lamhetaghatensis ), but has all of the diagnostic features of Hitobia as in the case of previous species (compare Figure 8 View Figure 8 (b–d) with Kamura

1992, figs 11, 16, 20, 25). Based on these observations, we propose to transfer S. singhi to Hitobia .

Diagnosis

Females of H. singhi comb. nov. seem closely related to the females of H. poonaensis comb. nov. in the shape of spermathecae, but can be distinguished from the latter by epigyne without anterior hood (which is present in H. poonaensis ) and epigynal plate with V-shaped posterior margin (which is crescent-like in H. poonaensis ) (compare Figure 7 View Figure 7 (d–e) with Figure 8 View Figure 8 (c–d)).

Supplementary description

Female (holotype, Figure 8 View Figure 8 (a–b)). Body length 9.44. Prosoma length 3.42, width 2.72. Opisthosoma length 6.02, width 3.72. Eye sizes and interdistances: ALE 0.13. AME 0.12. PLE 0.14. PME 0.11; AME–AME 0.12. AME–PME 0.20. PME–PLE 0.16. PME–PME 0.15. Length of chelicerae 1.05. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.12, at AMEs 0.15. Epigyne ( Figure 8 View Figure 8 (c–d)): epigynal plate sclerotised, with V-shaped posterior epigynal margin ( Figure 8 View Figure 8 (c)). Copulatory openings small, lying distantly from each other. Spermathecae large sac-like. ( Figure 8 View Figure 8 (d)). Fertilisation ducts narrow, diverging.

Male. Unknown.

Remarks

The ZSI collection has one glass bottle for this species labelled as ‘holotype’ (5052/18) containing a female specimen in poor condition. The same bottle has a small glass vial containing the dissected epigyne. There is a glass bottle in the ZSI collection containing a female specimen (4017/18) in poor condition collected from Maharashtra by V .D. Srivastava on 10 February 1970. It is misidentified as S. singhi and is, in fact, H. poonaensis comb. nov.

V

Royal British Columbia Museum - Herbarium

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Arachnida

Order

Araneae

Family

Gnaphosidae

Genus

Hitobia

Loc

Hitobia singhi ( Tikader & Gajbe, 1976 )

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Caleb, John T. D. & Sebastian, Pothalil A. 2021
2021
Loc

Sergiolus singhii

Brignoli PM 1983: 577
1983
Loc

Sergiolus singhi

Gajbe UA 2007: 474
Tikader BK 1982: 445
Tikader BK & Gajbe UA 1976: 189
1976
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