Smeringopus affinitatus Strand, 1906

HUBER, BERNHARD A., 2012, Revision and cladistic analysis of the Afrotropical endemic genus Smeringopus Simon, 1890 (Araneae: Pholcidae), Zootaxa 3461 (1), pp. 1-138 : 37

Smeringopus affinitatus Strand, 1906

Smeringopus affinitatus Strand 1906a: 670–671 . Strand 1908: 93–95.

Notes. Strand’s (1906a, 1908) descriptions were apparently based on a single female specimen from Ethiopia, Somali Region, “Fluss Mane” [=Webi Mane, ~ 5°06’N, 42°05’E], collected by C.F. von Erlanger. The specimen is probably lost and the long descriptions without illustrations do not allow clear separation of this species from similar congeners, especially from S. arambourgi . Strand’s specimen had a patella + tibia 1 length of 7.8 (i.e. tibia 1 ~7.3) which is much shorter than in the S. arambourgi females measured above, but strong size variation is not uncommon in Smeringopus and the male S. arambourgi specimen from Somalia also has shorter legs that the Ethiopian specimens. Further collecting in southeastern Ethiopia is necessary to decide if S. arambourgi is a synonym of S. affinitatus or not.