Paratus Simon, 1898

Sankaran, Pradeep M., Malamel, Jobi J., Joseph, Mathew M. & Sebastian, Pothalil A., 2017, A new species of Paratus Simon, 1898 (Araneae: Liocranidae, Paratinae) from India, Zootaxa 4286 (1), pp. 139-144 : 139-142

Genus Paratus Simon, 1898

Diagnosis. For genus description and diagnosis, see Deeleman-Reinhold (2001) and Marusik et al. (2008). Marusik et al. (2008) proposed the shaggy hair / bent hair arising at the base of both male and female chelicerae as a genus diagnostic feature. Such a hair is also found in other liocranid genera and many lamponid and gallieniellid genera ( Platnick 2000; Bosselaers & Jocqué 2002, 2013; Haddad et al. 2009), indicating that this feature is not dependable as diagnostic character for the genus.

The endogyne of all the known females of Paratus spp. ( Paratus indicus Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008 , Paratus sinensis Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008 and P. perus sp. nov.), except that of P. reticulatus , which is known only from female and whose internal female genitalic structure is unknown, are provided with a medially placed, enlarged, translucent, sac-like structure located near and behind the copulatory ducts ( Marusik et al. 2008: figs 23, 28–29; herein Fig. 2 F). We propose to designate this structure (large plate/wall as per Marusik et al. 2008) as median diverticulum with unknown function, possibly glandular.

Type species. Paratus reticulatus Simon, 1898 , by original designation.

Note. In the original description ( Simon 1898), the type species of Paratus was named as P. reticulatus (and is the validly published name (World Spider Catalog 2017)). But the type specimen deposited in the MNHN (no 18261) is labelled as ‘ Saticula reticulata ’ ( Deeleman-Reinhold 2001) . It is presumed that Simon originally placed this species under ‘ Saticula ’ and later he replaced this name with Paratus , as the former name was preoccupied by the cicadid genus Saticula Stål, 1866 (Marusik, pers. comm.). Similarly, Simon (1898: 209) had mentioned the type locality for the genus as Taprobane. However, in the species description section, the type locality for the type species was mentioned as Kandy, which was the name also mentioned in the label found along with ‘ Saticula reticulata ’ ( Deeleman-Reinhold 2001) . Because of this, we have considered only ‘Kandy’ for the distribution map presented below ( Fig. 3 ).

Distribution. Oriental: China ( Marusik et al. 2008; Zhao & Peng 2013), India ( Marusik et al. 2008; present data), Sri Lanka ( Simon 1898), Thailand ( Zapata & Ramírez 2010) ( Fig. 3 ).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Paratus perus sp. nov.. A – D Male left palp (ADSH 50221): A prolateral; B ventral; C retrolateral; D bulb after cleared in 10 % KOH showing the course of sperm duct, ventral. E – F Female copulatory organ (ADSH 50222): E Epigyne, ventral; F Endogyne, dorsal. Abbreviations: CO copulatory opening, CD copulatory duct, E embolus, EB embolic base, FD fertilization duct, MD median diverticulum, RTA retrolateral tibial apophysis, S spermatheca, SD sperm duct, T tegulum, Tmcd median circular depression of tegulum, Tp tegular prop, Ttl triangular tegular lobe. Scale bars: A – C 1 mm; D – F 0.2 mm.

FIGURE 3. Map showing distribution of Paratus spp.: ● Paratus perus sp. nov., ■ Paratus halabala Zapata & Ramírez, 2010, Paratus indicus Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008, Paratus longlingensis Zhao & Peng, 2013, ○ Paratus reticulatus Simon, 1898, ▲ Paratus sinensis Marusik, Zheng & Li, 2008.