Latouchia Pocock, 1901

Hao, Long, Yu, Kun & Zhang, Feng, 2025, Description of five new species from southern China, with note on the type species of Latouchia Pocock, 1901 (Araneae, Halonoproctidae), Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 137852-e 137852 : e137852-

Latouchia Pocock, 1901

Latouchia fossoria Pocock, 1901 Pocock 1901: 210, pl. 21, fig. 2.; Haupt and Shimojana 2001: 95–110, figs. 1–8.; Tso et al. 2003: 29, figs. 25–40.; Decae et al. 2019: 276, figs. 1–52.; Decae and Caranhac 2020: 563, figs. 1–26.; Decae et al. 2021: 312, figs. 8–15.

Description

Generic synonyms

Kishinouyeus Kishida (1913): 22, figs. 8–13; reduced to subgenus of Latouchia in Yaginuma (1971): 20; synonym confirmed by Ono and Ogata (2018): 619. Type species: Kishinouyeus typicus Kishida, 1913 from Japan.

Cronebergella Charitonov (1946): 19 , fig. 1; synonym confirmed by Raven (1985): 151. Type species: Cronebergella kitabensis Charitonov, 1946 from Uzbekistan.

Diagnosis

See Decae et al. (2021): 312.

Distribution

China, India, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan (?).

Notes

Cronebergella Charitonov, 1946 was considered as junior synonym of either Latouchia or Sterrhochrotus Simon, 1892 in two separate publications in 1985 (see Raven (1985): 151 versus Zonstein (1985): 157, respectively). Subsequently, the type species of Sterrhochrotus from " Turkestan " has been recombined as Ummidia ferghanensis ( Kroneberg 1875) ; hence, Sterrhochrotus was considered a junior synonym of Ummidia ( Decae et al. 2019: 519; World Spider Catalog 2024). However, the type species of Croneberella from Uzbekistan is still accepted under Latouchia by the World Spider Catalog (2024) as Latouchia kitabensis ( Charitonov 1946) . Other Central Asian Halonoproctidae are instead placed in the genus Ummidia Thorell, 1875 , including Ummidia mischi Zonstein 2014 from Afghanistan and Ummidia gandjinoi ( Andreeva 1968) from Tajikistan. In this wider context, the taxonomic status of Croneberella remains uncertain, this issue needs to be resolved through future re-examination of L. kitabensis , especially in the context of all other Central Asian Halonoproctidae .

Schenkel ( Schenkel 1963: 14, fig. 1) described Latouchia vinhiensis Schenkel, 1963 , based on two females preserved in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN; not examined), providing textual descriptions and line drawings of the body features, without information on genitalia. The collection information for this species is recorded as “ Vinhi, 7. III 1925 ”, possibly associated with “ A. Pichon, Comm. de Douane, 1925 ” (= Monsieur A. Pichon, Commissioner of customs, 1925) ( Schenkel 1963: 8). The specific location referred to by “ Vinhi ” is puzzling. In the same literature, Menemerus bonneti Schenkel, 1963 [now considered a junior synonym of Menemerus bivittatus ( Dufour 1831) ] is another species explicitly described from “ Vinhi ” and, given that this species is now considered cosmopolitan ( World Spider Catalog 2024), it offers little help in tracing back to this location. The original text also mentions several collecting events with nearby dates: “ Yunnan-fu, 26. II. 1925 ”, “ Lo Thoei-Tong, 2. III. 1925 ” and “ Tschank-hoa, 10. III. 1925 ” ( Schenkel 1963: 8). “ Yunnan-fu ” may refer to present-day Kunming City of Yunnan Province, China; perhaps based on potential chronological associations, Wang (2003) listed “ Lo Thoei-Tong ” as a region under Yunnan Province. This treatment is questionable. First, the collector of “ Yunnan-fu, 26. II. 1925 ” cannot be fully confirmed as A. Pichon, as it is not directly listed under Pichon’s records, but is situated between “ Distr. von Yunnan-fu, Plateau v. 1850-2000 m Dr Legendre, 1915 ” and Pichon’s collection records; second, even if all collections in 1925 within Schenkel’s (1963) study were made by Pichon, it cannot be assumed that “ Lo Thoei-Tong ”, “ Vinhi ” and “ Tschank-hoa ” are geographically close to Kunming, Yunnan, because the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, led by the French, was completed as early as 1910 and, at that time, it took less than three days to travel from Kunming (the starting point) to Haiphong (the endpoint, a port city of northern Vietnam); as a French Indochina customs official, Pichon had both reason and capability to undertake such long-distance travel. The possibility of “ Lo Thoei-Tong ”, “ Vinhi ” and “ Tschank-hoa ” being Vietnamese place names is worth considering, where “ Vinhi ” and “ Tschank-hoa ” seem to be phonetically very close to “ Vĩnh Hy ” and “ Khánh Hòa ”, with T ỉnh Khánh Hòa including the Nha Trang, an important port city of south-eastern Vietnam and Vĩnh Hy as a famous tourist attraction located about 50 km south of Nha Trang; it is not possible to exclude this possibility based on collection date as, assuming the collector arrived in Haiphong via railway, it would not be difficult to continue to the south-eastern Nha Trang by boat. On the other hand, the spelling of “ Vinhi ” and “ Tschank-hoa ” is also like the coastal cities of “ Vinh ” and “ Thanh Hóa ” in northern Vietnam. Currently, the distribution of Latouchia vinhiensis Schenkel, 1963 , is still marked as China on World Spider Catalog (2024) and, based on the above discussion, we remain sceptical about this. However, it is also difficult to determine the specific locations of these place names from the current information and perhaps with future examination of the type specimens, discovery of new specimens or related collectors’ work diaries could provide clues.