Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum (Araneae: Eresidae)

 

Abstract

Ujjwala Shivaji Deshmukh described Stegodyphus semadohensis based on a holotype female from the village of Semadoh in the state of Maharashtra, India (Deshmukh, 2013; note: the surname of the author is Deshmukh not Shivaji). The description is very short, and several of the figures are of poor quality. Nonetheless, the illustrations of the epigyne and vulva are sufficient enough to recognise that it is an adult female of Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock, 1900. This was subsequently proposed by El-Hennawy (2016), who synonymised S. semadohensis with S. pacificus. Since both sexes of S. pacificus were described and illustrated in an extensive revision of Stegodyphus Simon, 1873 by Kraus & Kraus (1989), it is hard to understand why Deshmukh (2013) only diagnosed the female of S. semadohensis from the more distantly related Stegodyphus mirandus Pocock, 1899, and failed to recognise it as a specimen of S. pacificus. Regardless, it has been overlooked by El-Hennawy (2016) and the World Spider Catalog from 2015 to the present day (see World Spider Catalog, 2023) that the name Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 was, in any case, unavailable. Nowhere in the original description can be found a statement that the type material has been deposited in a specific collection, nor the name and location of a collection (Deshmukh, 2013). Therefore, the name is unavailable per Article 16.4.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999). The purpose of this short note is to state that Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum.

Sherwood, Danniella & El-Hennawy, Hisham. (2023). Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum (Araneae: Eresidae). SERKET The Arachnological Bulletin of the Middle East and North Africa. 20. 18-19.  

Danniella Sherwood via ResearchGate