Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972 )

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 : 399-400

Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972) rest. comb.

Nesticus terrestris: Yaginuma, 1970: 390 , fig. 7 (♁, misidentification).

Nesticus mogera Yaginuma, 1972: 621 , fig. 1 (♁ ♀).

Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977: 153 , figs. 67a–h. (♁ ♀) n. syn.

Howaia mogera: Lehtinen & Saaristo (1980) : 53, figs. 7–9, 22–23, 29b (♁ ♀, transfer from Nesticus ).

Howaia mogera: Marusik & Guseinov (2003) : 38, figs. 17–21 (♁ ♀, not explicitly revalidated).

For full synonymy list, see WSC (2023).

Material examined. Type material of Nesticus helenensis : holotype ♀, paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129084), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 14.XII.1965 – 15.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♁ [allotype] ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 133336), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 26.I.1967, coll. J. Decelle and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129205), The Briars [listed as Prosperous Bay, Bryan's Rock in Hubert (1977)], 1,000ft., 6.I.1966, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129183), Prosperous Bay, Bryan's Rock, 1,000ft., 14.XI.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129171), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 6.I.1966, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129425), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 19.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype imm. ♁ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 135896), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 14.XII.1965 – 15.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined .

Diagnosis. (Adapted from Lin et al., 2016) Howaia mogera can be distinguished from most known male congeners based on the thin ventral apophysis, and blunted paracymbial process (vs. ventral apophysis wider and paracymbial process not blunted in most known congeners, except H. rongtangensis ). Females can be distinguished by the short, robust and conspicuously protruding scape (vs. scape not short, robust and conspicuously protruding in known congeners). Howaia mogera is distinguished from H. rongtangensis in both sexes by the presence of eyes (vs. eyes absent in both sexes of H. rongtangensis ).

Description. For detailed description, see Lin et al. (2016). However, it is important to state that all recent works illustrating and/or redescribing H. mogera n. comb. have focused on non-Japanese material (e.g., Azerbaijan (Marusik & Guisenov, 2003), China ( Gong & Zhu, 1982; Liu & Li, 2013), Fiji ( Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980), the Hawaiian Islands ( Gertsch, 1984), Italy ( Pantini et al., 2020), Korea ( Kim et al., 1999; Kim & Lee, 2018) and Saint Helena ( Hubert, 1977) [the latter as N. helenensis ]).

Rationale for synonymy. The palp morphology of the paratype male of Nesticus helenensis ( Figs. 2, 5 ) is in agreement with all prior published illustrations of the male palp of Howaia mogera . Similarly, the epigynal morphology of the holotype ( Figs. 4, 6 ) fits with previously published illustrations of H. mogera . The habitus ( Figs. 1, 3 ) is also congruent with that of preserved specimens of H. mogera (DS pers. obs.). The potential for synonymy was already recognised by Lehtinen & Saaristo (1980), but no formal synonymy was made. We hereby formally make the synonymy: Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977 = Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972) n. syn.

Distribution. United Kingdom to Japan, introduced to Hawaii and Saint Helena ( Nentwig et al., 2023; WSC, 2023).

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Holotype female (BE_RMCA_ARA.Ara.129084) and paratype male (BE_RMCA_ARA.Ara.133336) of Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977 [= Howaia mogera (Yaginuma, 1972) n. syn.]. 1, Male habitus, dorsal. 2, Male palp, ventral. 3, Female habitus, dorsal. 4, Epigynum, ventral. 5, Male palp, retrolateral (modified from Hubert, 1977). 6, Epigynum, ventral (modified from Hubert, 1977).