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

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

Sergiolus singhi Tikader & Gajbe, 1976: 189 , 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 (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 (d–e) with Figure 8 (c–d)).

Supplementary description

Female (holotype, 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 (c–d)): epigynal plate sclerotised, with V-shaped posterior epigynal margin ( Figure 8 (c)). Copulatory openings small, lying distantly from each other. Spermathecae large sac-like. ( 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.

Figures

Figure 7. Hitobia poonaensis comb. nov., male allotype and female holotype (NZC-ZSI-5049/18) of Sergiolus poonaensis. (a–c) left pedipalp of allotype male: (a) ventral view. (b) ventro-retrolateral view. (c) retrolateral tibial apophysis, retrolateral view. (d–e) epigyne of holotype female: (d) ventral view. (e) dorsal view. Abbreviations: C, conductor; E, embolus; RTA, retrolateral tibial apophysis; TA, tegular apophysis; TP, tegular process; VPT, apico-ventral process of tibia. Scale bars a–e = 0.2 mm.

Figure 8. Hitobia singhi comb. nov., female holotype of Sergiolus singhi (NZC-ZSI-5052/18). (a) habitus, dorsal view. (b) eyes, dorsal view. (c) epigyne, ventral view. (d) same, dorsal view. (e) label from type bottle. Scale bars a = 2 mm; b = 0.5 mm; c–d = 0.2 mm.