Araniella opisthographa ( Kulczynski , 1905)

Zamani, Alireza, Marusik, Yuri M. & Sestakova, Anna, 2020, On Araniella and Neoscona (Araneae, Araneidae) of the Caucasus, Middle East and Central Asia, ZooKeys 906, pp. 13-40 : 13

Araniella opisthographa ( Kulczynski, 1905) Figs 2C, D ; 6C, D ; 7D ; 8D ; 9D ; 10D

Araniella opisthographa : Blanke 1982: 289, fig. 3c-d, 5c-d, 6c-d, 8b (♂♀); Roberts 1995: 328, fig. (♂♀); Almquist 2005: 154, fig. 162a-g (♂♀).

Araneus tbilisiensis Mcheidze, 1997: 280, fig. 642-644 (♂♀). syn. nov.

Comments.

Araneus tbilisiensis was described based on one male and four females from the environs of Tbilisi, Georgia. There is no indication which specimen/sex was selected as the holotype. Mcheidze (1997) provided figures of male and female habitus, as well as epigyne, but the male palp was not illustrated. Judging from the figure of epigyne and distribution, it is most likely a junior synonym of A. opisthographa , which is already known from the surroundings of Tbilisi ( Otto 2019). We tried to obtain the type material for this study, but we have been informed that the single male specimen is most probably lost (V. Pkhakadze, pers. comm.).*

Figures

Figure 2. Male palps of Araniella mithra sp. nov. (A, B) and A. opisthographa (C, D). A, C Retrolateral B, D ventral. Scale bars: 0.2 mm.

Figure 6. SEM graphs of the bulbs of Araniella mithra sp. nov. (A, B) and A. opisthographa (C, D). A, C Retrolateral B, D ventro-retrolateral. Blue - median apophysis, green - embolus, red - terminal apophysis, violet - conductor. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figure 7. Ventral view of epigynes of Araniella villanii sp. nov. (A), A. proxima (B), A. mithra sp. nov. (C) and A. opisthographa (D). Scale bar: 0.2 mm.

Figure 8. Posterior view of epigynes of Araniella villanii sp. nov. (A), A. proxima (B), A. mithra sp. nov. (C), A. opisthographa (D) and A. nigromaculata (E). Scale bars: 0.2 mm.

Figure 9. Anterior view of epigynes of Araniella villanii sp. nov. (A), A. proxima (B), A. mithra sp. nov. (C) and A. opisthographa (D).

Figure 10. Lateral view of epigynes of Araniella villanii sp. nov. (A), A. proxima (B), A. mithra sp. nov. (C) and A. opisthographa (D). Scale bars: 0.2 mm.