Acantholycosa katunensis Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004

Fomichev, Alexander A., Marusik, Yuri M. & Koponen, Seppo, 2016, On the synonymy of two Acantholycosa species (Araneae, Lycosidae) from the Altai, ZooKeys 559, pp. 151-156 : 152-154

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Lycosidae

Acantholycosa katunensis Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004 Figs 1-2, 3-10

Acantholycosa katunensis Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004: 107, figs 21-23 (♂).

Acantholycosa kurchumensis Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004: 119, figs 82-83 (♀). Syn. n.

Material examined.

RUSSIA, Altai Republic, Kosh-Agach District: 3♂ (ISEA), Karagemskyi Mt. Range (49°52'N; 87°07'E), 2500-2900 m, “kurums” (=scree formed by huge boulders) and alpine meadow, 27.06.2014 (A.A. Fomichev); 1♀ (ISEA), Karagem River valley (49°53'N; 87°11'E), 1360 m, stony steppe slope, 28.06.2014 (A.A. Fomichev); KAZAKHSTAN, East Kazakhstan Area: 1♂ (holotype of Acantholycosa katunensis ) (ISEA) South Altai, south part of Katun’ Mt. Range, 5 km SE of Rakhmanovskiye Klyuchi (=Springs), 2100-2500 m, alpine zone, 26.06.1997 (R.Yu. Dudko and V.K. Zinchenko); 1♀ (holotype of Acantholycosa kurchumensis ) (ISEA) Kurchum Mt. Range, Kurchum River, upper flow, 23.08.1990 (V.K. Zinchenko).

Diagnosis.

Acantholycosa katunensis is most similar to Acantholycosa dudkorum Marusik, Azarkina & Koponen, 2004 by having a similarly shaped tegular apophysis that lacks an apical arm, a similar conductor, a wide apical pocket and a thin septum. The two species can be separated by the shape of the embolus, which tapers toward the tip in Acantholycosa katunensis (Figs 3-5) and widens in Acantholycosa dudkorum (cf. Marusik et al. 2004: figs 73, 75); the shape of the palea: in Acantholycosa dudkorum (cf. Marusik et al. 2004: figs 73, 75), the paleal process is thin with a hollow on the prolateral side, and it is unmodified in Acantholycosa katunensis (Figs 4-5, 9). Females of the two species can be distinguished by the shape of septum: long (starting from the pocket) with a subparallel base in Acantholycosa katunensis and short (starting from fovea) and widened at the base in Acantholycosa dudkorum (cf. Marusik et al. 2004: fig. 78).

Description.

See Marusik et al. (2004).

Distribution.

So far, this species is known from three localities. The most distant localities, the upper reaches of the Kurchum River (locality 1, Map 1) and the Karagemskyi Mt Range (locality 3) are approximately 190 km apart (Map 1). Rakhmanovskiye Klyuchi Village (locality 2), the type locality of Acantholycosa katunensis , is located between two extreme distribution records (Map 1). Listings for the species by Platnick (2004-2014) and the World Spider Catalog (2015) for Russia were erroneous based on wrong country data provided by Marusik et al. (2004). Type locality of Acantholycosa katunensis was mistakenly assigned to Russia (Altai) by Marusik et al (2004) instead of Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Area). The new record from the Karagemskyi Mt Range is the first locality record of this species in Russia.