Journal of
Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2018 | 10(8): 12130–12132
Transfer of Storena gujaratensis Tikader & Patel, 1975 to the genus Suffasia
Jocqué, 1991 (Araneae: Zodariidae)
Reshma Solanki 1,
Manju Siliwal 2 & Dolly Kumar 3
1,3 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science,
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda,
Vadodara, Gujarat 390002, India
2 Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society, 12, Thiruvannamalai Nagar, Saravanampatti
- Kalapatti Road, Saravanampatti,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India
1 solankireshma46@gmail.com, 2 manjusiliwal@gmail.com,
3 dollymsu@gmail.com (corresponding author)
doi: http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3452.10.8.12130-12132
Editor: Anonymity
requested. Date of publication: 26
July 2018 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms
# 3452 | Received 20 April 2017 | Final received 26 June 2017 | Finally
accepted 18 July 2018
Citation: Solanki, R., M. Siliwal & D. Kumar (2018).
Transfer of Storena gujaratensis Tikader & Patel, 1975 to the genus Suffasia
Jocqué, 1991 (Araneae: Zodariidae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(8): 12130–12132; http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3452.10.8.12130-12132
Copyright: © Solanki et al. 2018.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any
medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the
authors and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the following
personnel/Organizations: PCCF, Gujarat Forest Department for giving permission
to carry out spider surveys in Jambughoda Wildlife
Sanctuary; Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for granting UGC-RFSMS
fellowship; Dr. Rudy Jocque
for confirmation of the genus; Dr. Yuri M. Marusik for reviewing the draft manuscript and providing
valuable comments; Mr. Kartik
Upadhyay and Mr. Harshad Bariya, for their
assistance during field work; Shri N.K. Juyal, Jr. Technical Officer, Wadia
Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun for providing facility to procure SEM
images.
The
family Zodariidae Thorell,
1881 is known with 1,123 species and 84 genera from the world but is very
poorly represented in India: 29 species and 10 genera (WSC 2017); out of which,
all the Indian species under Storena Walckenaer, 1805 (seven species) and Lutica
Marx, 1891 (four species) are considered as misplaced in the genus (WCS 2017).
During
spider surveys in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary,
Gujarat in January–March 2013, ground spiders were collected by pitfall trap
method. A male specimen was collected
from the sanctuary at: 22.360990N & 73.6653940E,
altitude 244m, Gujarat, India. All measurements are in mm. Morphological
observations and illustrations were made by MS using CETIITM
stereomicroscope and camera lucida attached to it. Scanning Electron Microscope images for palp
were taken through SEM-Zeiss EVO-40EP at the Wadia
Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun.
Specimen is deposited at the public museum of Wildlife Information
Liaison Development Society, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Initially,
the zodariid spider specimens collected were
identified as Storena gujaratensis
Tikader & Patel, 1975 based on the distinct palp
structure (see details below). None of
the other Storena spp. possess
this character. S. gujaratensis was described
from Napad, Kaira (=Kheda) District, Gujarat based on a male specimen. The authors did not provide information on
the type specimen depository and catalog number. We assumed that the specimen was deposited at
Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata but one of the authors (MS) could not
locate this specimen at ZSI, Kolkata. It
is likely that Dr. B.H. Patel retained the specimen
in his private collection (however, since his death in 2013 we have no
knowledge of the status of his collection).
Distance between the type locality and Jambughoda
Wildlife Sanctuary is about 130km by road without any major geographical
barrier, which reflects a wide distribution range of this species.
As all
Indian species under Storena are misplaced in
the genus as per WCS (2017), we looked out for characters of S. gujaratensis matching with other genera. We noticed presence of hook shaped dorsal cymbial flange, large tegulum,
moderately long and thick embolus and a few of these characters typically found
in Suffasia Jacque, 1991. The members of Suffasia
can be differentiated from other genera by presence of dorsal cymbial flange overlapping palpal
tibia, presence of cymbial lateral pit and swollen
venter of the abdomen in male, whereas females can be distinguished by the epigyne structure with frontal entrance openings and the
course of the copulatory ducts (Jocqué
1991; Jocqué 1992).
Although all characters of male did not match with the Suffasia especially absence of cymbial
lateral pit and AME not being small but Suffisia
also shows high variation in the palp structure within the genus. Further, we
found the S. gujaratensis male palp structure
closely resembled Suffasia attidiya Benjamin, 2007 from Sri Lanka by having large
embolus and tegulum and RTA short. Therefore, here we transfer Storena gujaratensis
to Suffasia. So far, only three species of the Suffasia, viz., S. ala
Sen et al., 2015, S. keralaensis
Sudhikumar et al., 2009 and S. tigrina
(Simon, 1893) are reported from India (WSC 2017). In this paper, we provide additional
morphological characters for Suffasia gujaratensis comb. nov. along with
illustrations, description of male and natural history notes. High variation is noticed amongst Suffasia spp. and therefore a revision of this genus
is urgently needed.
Taxonomy
Suffasia gujaratensis
(Tikader & Patel, 1975),
comb. nov.
(Figs.
1–5, Table 1)
Storena gujaratensis Tikader &
Patel, 1975: 138, description of male.
Material
examined: WILD-13-ARA-1273,
male, 23.i.2013, Bhat, Jambughoda
Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, coll. Reshma Solanki.
Description
of male: Total
length 6.31. Carapace 3.26 long, 2.47 wide. Abdomen 3.05 long, 2.05 wide. Eye diameters and
inter-distances: AME 0.28, ALE 0.18, PME 0.15, PLE 0.18;
AME-AME 0.078, AME-ALE 0.18, PME-PME 0.13, PME-PLE 0.39, PLE-ALE 0.052. Leg
formula: 4132. Leg spines: I fe
d2 p1, ti p2 v6, mt p1 r1
v6; II fe d2 p1, ti p2 v5, mt p2 r1 v6; III fe d4disp. p1 r1, pa p2, ti d5disp. p2 r2 v6, mt d7disp. r2 v6; IV fe d3 p1 r1, pa p2, ti d3disp. p2 r2 v6, mt d17disp. p5 r5 v17disp.
Coloration: Carapace dark reddish-brown. Chelicerae dark reddish-brown with hairs. Sternum
yellowish-red, with dark lateral margin, Abdomen dark grey dorsally with 6–7
pairs of white blotches, posterior ones are merged. Ventrally pale in color. Legs pale yellow with
spines.
Carapace
covered with grey hairs, dense in anterior half. Chelicerae with hairs,
presence of sclerotized chillum with hairs. Sternum having triangular extensions
which correspond with slight concavities in coxae,
uniformly covered with bristles and hairs, bristles with warty appearance,
integument rough having net like pattern.
Maxillae wider at base gradually narrowing posteriorly, bordered ridge
on prolateral surface. Labium longer than wide, arrow shaped. Abdomen dorsally covered with brown hairs,
thin scutum ventrally covering book lungs and epigynal area.
Ventral abdomen uniformly covered with brown and black color hairs and bristles intermixed. Tracheae small and
broad covered with brown hairs, situated just in front of spinnerets, colulus with two hairs.
Anterior spinnerets long with two segments, Posterior spinnerets two
segmented with apical segment dome shaped.
Palp: Tibia digitiform
with two short blunt apophyses and elevated retrolateral margin with distinct process. Cymbium with lateral fold, distally truncated with a notch in the middle;
dorsal cymbial flange hook-shaped overlaying palpal tibia.
Conductor large flap-like seen distally; tegulum
large, sclerotized with very short and blunt tegular
extension; embolus slender long and originates at 6 o’clock position of tegulum on short embolic base.
Comments: Suffasia
gujaratensis comb. nov. possess
some unique characters which have not been previously reported in Suffasia like presence of distal cymbial
notch, dorsal cymbial hook, large tegulum
and absence of cymbial lateral pit. Though, S. attidiya
possess large tegulum, moderately long embolus
and short RTA, diagnosis for the genus is weak as variations within Suffasia spp. is high (like in the structure of cymbial flange, presence-absence of cymbial
lateral pit; tibial apophysis
structure, tegular shape and size; embolic length,
etc.). Therefore, we consider Suffasia as a species complex and multiple specimens
of both the sexes for all the species will help in assigning robust diagnosis
for the genus.
Distribution:
Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, India.
Table 1. Legs and palp
length of male Suffasia gujaratensis
comb. nov. from Jambughoda Wildlife
Sanctuary, Gujarat.
|
Fe |
Pa |
Ti |
Me |
Ta |
Total |
I |
2.21 |
0.95 |
1.95 |
2.10 |
1.53 |
8.74 |
II |
2.05 |
0.95 |
1.58 |
1.53 |
1.16 |
7.27 |
III |
2.05 |
0.89 |
1.63 |
2.00 |
1.21 |
7.78 |
IV |
2.58 |
1.00 |
2.26 |
3.00 |
1.68 |
10.52 |
PALP |
1.18 |
0.55 |
0.58 |
– |
1.79 |
4.10 |
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