Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2019 | 11(12): 14629–14630

Response to spiders of Odisha: a preliminary checklist additions to the spider checklist of Odisha

John T.D. Caleb

Zoological Survey of India, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal 700053, India.

caleb87woodgate@gmail.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5288.11.12.14629-14630

Date of publication: 26 September 2019 (online & print)

Manuscript details: #5288 | Received 30 July 2019

Citation: Caleb, J.T.D. (2019). Response to spiders of Odisha: a preliminary checklist additions to the spider checklist of Odisha. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(12): 14629–14630. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5288.11.12.14629-14630

Copyright: © Caleb 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Choudhury et al. (2019) presented a preliminary list of 248 spider species known to occur from Odisha State based on the compilation of all published literature and fresh collections carried out during 2016–2017. This is the most recent paper providing an overall view of the spider diversity known in the state, however, the presented checklist seems to be incomplete, since not all species have been identified up to the species level. Several species, as many as 77 morphospecies, were identified up to the genus level only. Furthermore, it has also missed out on recording several species described from Odisha State itself (Table 1).

The authors declare that they prepared the checklist based on ‘published literature’, but seem to have omitted a few important ones. Omission of a few species may happen inadvertently due to many reasons, one being the unavailability of the concerned literature. But that is no excuse in this case, since all published literature are available and accessible from the World Spider Catalog (2019). The magnanimous work of Prószyński (1992) was completely ignored by the authors while other faunistic works by non-specialists have been considered. Prószyński described numerous species from India and many of them were from Odisha State. Other works by Logunov (2001) and Tanasevitch (2018) have also not been referred.

The aim of a checklist must be to rather provide information on the species present in the given locality and not add unidentifiable entities just to increase the species number. Having 77 unidentified species in the list may be considered an unnecessary addition, unless important morphological characters had been illustrated. On the other hand, species which have to be on the list have been ignored.

Table 1. Additions to the list of spider species known from Odisha State.

	Species	Locality	Reference
1	Bianor angulosus (Karsch, 1879)	Cuttack	Logunov 2001
2	Carrhotus sannio (Thorell, 1877)	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
3	Epeus albus Prószyński, 1992	Jajpur-Keonjahr District	Prószyński 1992
4	Epeus indicus Prószyński, 1992	Jajpur-Keonjahr District	Prószyński 1992
5	Habrocestoides bengalensis Prószyński, 1992	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
6	Jajpurattus incertus Prószyński, 1992	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
7	Myrmaplata plataleoides (O. P.-Cambridge, 1869)	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
8	Okinawicius daitaricus (Prószyński, 1992)	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
9	Pancorius daitaricus Prószyński, 1992	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
10	Pandisus indicus Prószyński, 1992	Jajpur-Keonjahr District	Prószyński 1992
11	Phintella bifurcata Prószyński, 1992	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
12	Phintella debilis (Thorell, 1891)	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
13	Rhene daitarensis Prószyński, 1992	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
14	Toxeus jajpurensis (Prószyński, 1992)	Daitari	Prószyński 1992
15	Nasoona orissa Tanasevitch, 2018	Padiakutibari	Tanasevitch 2018

References

Choudhury, S.R., M. Siliwal & S.K. Das (2019). Spiders of Odisha: a preliminary checklist. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14144–14157. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3786.11.9.14144-14157

Logunov, D. V. (2001). A redefinition of the genera Bianor Peckham & Peckham, 1885 and Harmochirus Simon, 1885, with the establishment of a new genus Sibianor gen. n. (Aranei: Salticidae). Arthropoda Selecta 9: 221–286.

Prószyński, J. (1992). Salticidae (Araneae) of India in the collection of the Hungarian National Natural History Museum in Budapest. Annales Zoologici, Warszawa 44: 165–277.

Tanasevitch, A.V. (2018). A survey of the genus Nasoona Locket, 1982 with the description of six new species (Araneae, Linyphiidae). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 125(1): 87–100.

World Spider Catalog (2019). World Spider Catalog. Version 20.5. Natural History Museum Bern online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch, accessed on 29 July 2019. https://doi.org/10.24436/2