Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2021 | 13(12): 19864–19866

 

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

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7651.13.12.19864-19866

#7651 | Received 08 September 2021 | Final received 10 October 2021 | Finally accepted 13 October 2021

 

 

First record of the orb-weaving spider Araneus tubabdominus Zhu & Zhang, 1993 (Araneae: Araneidae) from India

 

Souvik Sen 1, John T.D. Caleb 2  & Shelley Acharya 3

 

1,3 Zoological Survey of India, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal 700053, India.

2 Division of Biodiversity, Entomology Research Institute, Loyola College (Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600034, India.

1 sensouvik07@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 caleb87woodgate@gmail.com, 3 acharya.shelley@gmail.com

 

 

Editor: Anonymity requested.   Date of publication: 26 October 2021 (online & print)

 

Citation: Sen, S., J.T.D. Caleb & S. Acharya (2021). First record of the orb-weaving spider Araneus tubabdominus Zhu & Zhang, 1993 (Araneae: Araneidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(12): 19864–19866. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7651.13.12.19864-19866

 

Copyright: © Sen et al. 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: Self-funded.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The first and third authors are grateful to Dr. Dhriti Banerjee, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing facilities and encouragement. The first author is thankful to Dr. P.M. Sureshan, Officer-in-charge, Western Ghat Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Kozhikode, Kerala for providing imaging facilities. We thank C.K. Charesh of the Western Ghat Regional Centre, for support during field collection. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which improved the manuscript significantly.

 

 

 

Abbreviations: AL—abdomen length | ALE—anterior lateral eye | AME—anterior median eye | AW—abdomen width | CL—carapace length | CW—carapace width | PLE—posterior lateral eye | PME—posterior median eye | TL—total length.

 

 

Clerck (1757) erected the orb-weaving spider genus Araneus, with Araneus angulatus Clerck, 1757 as the generotype. The genus currently has 576 described species globally, of which 18 species are known from India (Caleb & Sankaran 2021; World Spider Catalog 2021). While examining the collections from a recent faunistic survey conducted in the Kerala state of southern India, a female specimen of Araneus tubabdominus Zhu & Zhang, 1993 was identified. This species is currently known only from its type locality in China and is known only from its original description, which is in Chinese (World Spider Catalog 2021; Zhu & Zhang 1993). The subsequent description, which also is in Chinese and illustrations of this species (Yin et al. 1997; Song et al. 1999) are based on its original description and illustrations and not on additional material. The present paper deals with the first record of A. tubabdominus in India.

Material and Methods: The collected specimen was preserved in 70% ethanol. Morphological examination was done under a Leica M205A stereo zoom microscope and images were captured with a Leica DFC500 camera. All images were processed with the aid of LAS core software (version 3.8.0). All measurements are in millimeters (mm). Palp and leg measurements are given in the following order: total (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus (except palp), tarsus). The specimen examined is deposited in the National Zoological Collections, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India (NZC-ZSI).

 

Araneidae Clerck, 1757

Araneus Clerck, 1757

Araneus tubabdominus Zhu & Zhang, 1993

(Images 1–6)

Araneus tubabdominus Zhu & Zhang, 1993: 36, figs 1–7 (male, female); Yin et al., 1997: 184, fig. 101a–g  (male, female); Song et al., 1999: 241, figs 140Y–Z, 144N–O, 149I (male, female).

Type material: Holotype–female, allotype–male, paratypes 2 females from Longzhou County, August 1980; 1 female paratype from Luzhai County, August 1981 (deposited in Hebei Educational College, China).

Additional material examined: 1 female (NZC-ZSI-7380/18), India: Kerala, Kannur, Kannapuram, (11.972297°N, 75.321517°E), 10m, 03.ix.2017, coll. Charesh, C.K.

Diagnosis: The species can be distinguished from all known congeners by the elongated, long, tubular abdomen without any humps (Image 1); elliptical spermatheca almost touching each other; thin, subparallel copulatory ducts (Image 5).

Redescription: Female (Images 1, 2): TL 11.43, CL 3.22, CW 2.55, AL 8.21, AW 4.10. Eyes diameter: AME>ALE>PME=PLE; inter-ocular distance: AME–AME 0.29, ALE–AME 0.70, PME–PME 0.10, PLE–PME 0.81, ALE–PLE 0.08, AME–PME 0.19. Clypeus height 0.41. Cheliceral length 1.03. Palp and leg measurements: palp 2.54 (0.64, 0.39, 0.68, 0.83); I 7.02 (1.01, 0.95, 2.70, 1.75, 0.61); II 6.74 (0.75, 0.89, 2.62, 1.77, 0.71); III 4.11 (1.10, 0.62, 1.07, 0.78, 0.54), IV 6.59 (1.40, 0.72, 2.22, 1.60, 0.65); leg formula: 1243. Carapace brown, longer than wide; cephalic part elevated than thoracic part and covered with dense white hairs (Image 1). Eyes pearly white, arranged in two recurved rows. Clypeus brown. Chelicerae dark brown; promargin with three and retromargin with four teeth. Endites and labium brown, apical margin of endites pale and scopulate. Sternum brown, longer than wide. Legs yellowish-brown, distal end of each segment greyish-brown (Image 2). Abdomen elongated oval, extending beyond spinnerets (Images 1, 2); dorsum with white reticulations and distinct median longitudinal grey marking (Image 1), with five pairs of median sigilla; venter with white reticulations and scattered grey patches, with a median grey band between epigastric furrow and spinnerets. Spinnerets grey. Genitalia (Images 3–5). Epigynal scape elongated, wrinkled along its entire length, with broad, blunt tip, arising from the basal trapezoid epigynal plate (Images 4, 5); spermatheca small, nearly elliptical, almost touching each other; copulatory openings located laterally lead to the spermathecae with long, subparallel, narrow copulatory ducts (Image 5).

Male: For description and illustrations of the male, see Zhu & Zhang (1993).

Distribution: China, India (new record) (Zhu & Zhang 1993; present data) (Image 6).   

 

For images - - click here

 

 

References

 

Caleb, J.T.D. & P.M. Sankaran (2021). Araneae of India. Version 2021 (accessed on 03 September 2021).

Song, D.X., M.S. Zhu & J. Chen (1999). The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang, 640pp.

Yin, C.M., J.F. Wang, M.S. Zhu, L.P. Xie, X.J. Peng & Y.H. Bao (1997). Fauna Sinica: Arachnida: Araneae: Araneidae. Science Press, Beijing, 460pp.

Zhu, M.S. & Y.Q. Zhang (1993). Records of some spiders of the family Araneidae from Guangxi (Arachnida: Araneae). Journal of the Guangxi Agricultural College 12: 36–43.

World Spider Catalog (2021). World Spider Catalog, Version 22.5, Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (accessed on 03 September 2021).