Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980

Sherwood, Danniella, Jocqué, Rudy, Henrard, Arnaud & Fowler, Liza, 2023, The scaffold web spider Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977, a junior synonym of Howaia mogera (Yaginuma, 1972) rest. comb., with revalidation of Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980 (Araneae: Nesticidae), Zootaxa 5306 (3), pp. 397-400 : 397-399

Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980 gen. rest.

Nesticus: Yaginuma (1972) : 390 (in part).

Howaia Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980: 53 .

Nesticella: Wunderlich (1986) : 93. (synonymy of Howaia with Nesticella )

Howaia: Marusik & Guseinov (2003) : 37. (considered valid but not explicitly revalidated) For full synonymy list, see WSC, 2023.

Type species. Nesticus mogera Yaginuma, 1972 by original designation ( Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980).

Diagnosis. (Adapted from Lin et al., 2016) Howaia can be distinguished from Nesticella sensu stricto (i.e. the nepalensis -group of Lin et al., 2016) by a combination of the following characters. In males: (1) paracymbium with presence of a single ventral apophysis without lobed processes, and the squared distal process (vs. ventral apophysis with two lobed processes and distal process not squared in Nesticella ); (2) a basally broad and rugulose terminal apophysis, normally flattened (vs. terminal apophysis elongate and not basally broad in Nesticella ), and (3) absence of a tegular apophysis (vs. present in Nesticella ) In females: (1) copulatory ducts straight and almost parallel (vs. copulatory ducts bent in Nesticella ), and (2) scape quadrate and strongly protruding (vs. scape narrow, non-quadrate and short in Nesticella ).

Remarks. In addition to the morphological evidence given above, molecular data also support the validity of Howaia as a valid genus ( Ballarin & Li, 2018). Therefore, based on the morphological and molecular evidence, we formally revalidate the genus Howaia rest. gen. here, restricting it solely to the mogera -group sensu Lin et al. (2016).

Species included. Howaia apiculata Liu & Li, 2013 n. comb., H. fuliangensis Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016 n. comb., H. huomachongensis Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016 n. comb., H. mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972) comb. rest., H. rongtangensis Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016 n. comb., H. wanzaiensis Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016 n. comb., H. yanbeiensis Lin, Ballarin & Li, 2016 n. comb., and H. yintiaoling Wang, Zheng & Zhang, 2022 n. comb.

Distribution. Eurasian, and introduced to Hawaii and Saint Helena