Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2021 | 13(6): 18667–18670

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7333.13.6.18667-18670

#7333 | Received 12 April 2021 | Final received 29 April 2021 | Finally accepted 03 May 2021

Additional distribution records of Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) from India

Dhruv A. Prajapati

Research and Development Centre, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641014, India.

dhruvspidy215@gmail.com

Editor: John Caleb, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Date of publication: 26 May 2021 (online & print)

Citation: Prajapati, D.A. (2021). Additional distribution records of Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(6): 18667–18670. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7333.13.6.18667-18670

Copyright: © Prajapati 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: The author declares no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: I am thankful to Miss. Priyal Prajapati for her generous help in preparation of figure plates. I am also grateful to Mr. Anil Prajapati and Mrs. Kruti Prajapati for their help in specimen collection.

The gnaphosid spider genus Zimiris Simon, 1882 has only two representatives in the world: Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882 and Zimiris diffusa Platnick & Penney, 2004, and both these species are distributed in southern India (Simon 1884; Platnick & Penney 2004). The type species Z. doriae Simon, 1882 is widespread and known from Ivory Coast, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, and Iran. It was, moreover, introduced into other places such as Mexico, Caribbean, French Guiana, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia (Java) and Malaysia (World Spider Catalog 2021). The species was recorded in India by Simon (1884) and Sherriffs (1919). The specimens collected by Sherriffs were later studied by Cooke (1964) and Platnick & Penny (2004). The aim of this paper is to record this species 102 years since its last record from India and update its distribution records.

Materials and Methods

Specimens were hand collected and studied under a LEICA S8AP0 stereozoom microscope. All measurements are in millimetres (mm). Drawings were made with the aid of a drawing tube attached to the microscope. Microphotographs of the specimens were captured with a Leica DFC2900 digital camera attached to a Leica M205A stereozoom microscope enabled with Leica Application Suite (LAS) version 4.5.0. All the examined specimens are deposited in a reference collection of the Gujarat Ecological and Educational Research (GEER) Foundation, Gandhinagar, India.

Taxonomy

Gnaphosidae Pocock, 1898

Zimiris Simon, 1882

Type species: Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882, by original designation.

Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882

Images 1–14: Figures 1–4

Zimiris doriae Simon, 1882: 240, pl. 8, f. 12–15.

Zimiris indica Simon, 1884: 141.

Zimiris doriai? Sherriffs, 1919: 226.

Zimiris doriai Platnick & Penney, 2004: 8, f. 1–8, 12–19.

For a complete list of taxonomic references, refer the World Spider Catalog (2021) 

Material examined: GEER421612A, 16.v.2014, two males and one female, Vastrapur (23.037⁰N & 23.037⁰E, 4.49m), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, coll. D.A. Prajapati & A.V. Prajapati; GEER421612B, 21.ix.2015, one male, Ghatlodia (23.064⁰N & 72.544⁰E, 4.69m), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, coll. K.D. Prajapati; GEER421612C, 07.xi.2015, one female, Bopal (23.046⁰N & 72.478⁰E, 4.19m), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, coll. D.A. Prajapati; GEER421612D, 19.viii.2017, one female, Sector 28 (23.235⁰N & 72.678⁰E, 6.52m), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, coll. D.A. Prajapati.

Diagnosis: For detailed diagnosis, see Platnick & Penny (2004).

Description: Male (Images 3–6). Body length 3.04. Carapace length 1.68, width 1.37, height 0.64. Abdomen length 1.36, width 1.10, height 0.64. Pedipalp (Images 11–12, Figures 1–2): embolus filiform, supported by a narrow conductor (Image 11, Figure 1); sperm duct makes a crescent shaped curve before leading to the embolus (Image 11, Figure 1); RTA broad at the base, and narrowing toward a bunt tip, directed ventrad (Images 12, Figure 2).

Female (Images 1, 7–10): Body length 3.84. Carapace length 1.83, width 1.51, height 0.68. Abdomen length 2.01, width 1.54, height 0.97. Epigynum with ventro-medial omega shaped structure (Image 13, Figure 3); spermathecae spherical (Image 14, Figure 4); copulatory ducts long, narrow at proximal end and broad distally (Image 14, Figure 4).

Distribution in India: Gujarat: Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (present record), Tamil Nadu: Chennai (erstwhile Madras), Puducherry, a union territory (erstwhile Pondicherry) and Ramanathapuram (erstwhile Ramnad) (Simon 1884; Sherriffs 1919; Cooke 1964) (Figure 5).

Natural history: This species is nocturnal and can be synanthropic (Sherriffs 919; Platnick & Penny 2004). All specimens in the present study were collected during the night, as they were wandering on walls in houses. However, one specimen was collected during the day time from a cloth shop, from inside a cloth box. A gravid female was also captured to observe its egg sac, which appeared as a hanging bell and it contained six pale yellowish eggs (Image 2).

For figures & images - - click here

References

Cooke, J.A.L. (1964). A revisionary study of some spiders of the rare family Prodidomidae. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 142: 257–305.

Platnick, N.I. & D. Penney (2004). A revision of the widespread spider genus Zimiris (Araneae, Prodidomidae). American Museum Novitates 3450: 1–12.

Sherriffs, W.R. (1919). A contribution to the study of south Indian arachnology. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 9(4): 220–253.

Simon, E. (1884). Descriptions de quelques arachnides des genres Miltia E. S. et Zimiris E. S. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 28(C.R.): 139–142.

Simon, E. (1882). II. E´ tude sur les arachnides de l’Yemen me´ridional. In: Viaggio ad Assab nel Mar Rosso, dei signori G. Doria ed O. Beccari con il R. Aviso ‘‘Esploratore’’ dal 16 Novembre 1879 al 26 Febbraio 1880. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova 18: 207–260.

World Spider Catalog (2021). World Spider Catalog. Version 22. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch, accessed on 04 March 2021. https://doi.org/10.24436/2