Notes on the identity of the orb-weaver spider Araneus nox Simon, 1877 (Araneae: Araneidae) from India, including its transfer to Eriovixia Archer, 1951 and one new synonymy

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  Notes on the identity of the orb-weaver spider Araneus nox Simon, 1877 (Araneae: Araneidae) from India, including its transfer to Eriovixia Archer, 1951 and one new synonymy The orb-weaver genus Araneus Clerck, 1757 has historically served as a heterogeneous assemblage for numerous araneid spiders lacking clear generic placement, and several Asian species formerly assigned to Araneus have subsequently been transferred to more narrowly defined genera. One species that still needs further investigation on its true identity is Araneus nox (Simon, 1877), originally described as Epeira nox Simon, 1877 from Basilan Island, Philippines, and later transferred to Araneus by Simon (1905). In the same year as the description of Epeira nox, Thorell (1877) described Epeira pilula from the Moluccas (Indonesia), which was subsequently synonymised under Epeira nox by Simon (1880). Despite its broad Oriental distribution, the taxonomic identity and generic placement of A. nox have remained insuff...

Scorpiops reinisp. n. from Yunnan, China (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae)

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Scorpiops reinisp. n. from Yunnan, China (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae)


Abstract

Scorpiops reini sp. n. is described from Yingjiang County (Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province) based on an adult pair. It can be readily discriminated from all of its congeneric geographic neighbors in Yunnan, namely S. jendeki Kovařík, 1994, S. shidian (Zhu et al., 2005), S. tongtongi Tang, 2022, and S. zhangshuyuani (Ythier, 2019). Within Yunnan, it resembles S. validus (Di et al., 2010) and S. yangi (Zhu et al., 2007) most, but can be identified by its large median ocelli (relative to the width of ocular subislet), pedipalp chelal finger morphology and pectinal tooth count. Beyond Yunnan, it shows the highest similarity with S. beccaloniae (Kovařík, 2005), from which it distinguishes itself mainly by a different chelal morphology (weaker finger lobe and notch, longer and narrower manus with chelal carinae composed of smaller and denser granules). The validity of this new species is supported molecularly (to be published). The ocular islets are reviewed for all Yunnan Scorpiops.


Tang, V. 2024 . Scorpiops reinisp. n. from Yunnan, China (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae). Euscorpius, No. 403: 1-19. 

https://mds.marshall.edu/euscorpius/vol2024/iss403/1/