Sphingius bilineatus Simon, 1906

Sankaran, Pradeep M., 2025, On a new synonym in the genus Sphingius Thorell, 1890 from India (Araneae: Liocranidae), Zootaxa 5665 (4), pp. 597-599 : 597-599

Sphingius bilineatus Simon, 1906

Figs 1–8

Sphingius bilineatus Simon, 1906: 301 (♀); Gravely 1931: 272, fig. 19J–K (♂ ♀). Sankaran et al. 2020: 511 , fig. 5A–B (♂ ♀).

Sphingius barkudensis Gravely, 1931: 271 , fig. 19G–H (♂ ♀) [for a complete list of references, see World Spider Catalog (2025)]. syn. nov.

Type material. S. bilineatus : holotype ♀, INDIA: Puducherry: Mahé/ Mayyazhi (11°42'N 75°32'E; 2 m a.s.l.), May– November 1901, leg. M.M. Maindron, repository MNHN ( AR17739 ; Simon’s number 16197), examined based on photographs. S. barkudensis : lectotype ♂ and paralectotype 2♀, INDIA: Odisha: Ganjam: Chilika Lake: Barkuda Island (19°33'N, 85°08'E; 13 m a.s.l.), 3–19 August 1919, leg. F.H. Gravely, repository NZC-ZSI (no register number) examined [type images are provided in Sankaran et al. (2020) —not re-examined] .

Description. Male and female. For diagnosis, description and illustrations of the male and female, see Sankaran et al. (2020). Female dorsal and ventral habitus, anterior and dorsal views of the eye region, sternum and mouthparts, and epigyne of the female holotype of S. bilineatus are illustrated in Figs 1–7 . The type label is shown in Fig. 8 .

Justification of the synonymy. Examination of the holotype of S. bilineatus showed that both this species and S. barkudensis share a pear-shaped, membranous epigynal plate, a small, anteriorly positioned sclerotised epigynal hood and mediolaterally placed, crescent-shaped copulatory openings (cf. Fig. 6 and Sankaran et al. 2020: figs 2D–E, 3J, 4C). Furthermore, S. barkudensis has short, stout, diverging copulatory ducts and posteriorly situated spherical spermathecae, which are also consistent with those of S. bilineatus (cf. Fig. 7 and Sankaran et al. 2020: figs 2E–F, 3J–K). Based on these observations, I propose S. barkudensis as a junior synonym of S. bilineatus .

Distribution. Bangladesh, India (Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu;

Fig. 9 ) ( World Spider Catalog 2025).

Figures

FIGURE 9. Current distribution of Sphingius bilineatus Simon, 1906 in India (World Spider Catalog 2025). ○ type locality.

FIGURES 1–8. Sphingius bilineatus Simon, 1906, holotype female. 1 habitus, dorsal. 2 same, ventral. 3 same, frontal. 4 eye group, dorsal. 5 prosoma showing sternum, endites and labium, ventral. 6–7 epigyne, ventral. 8 original labels found in the holotype vial. Scale bars: 1–2, 1 mm; 3–4, 0.25 mm; 5, 0.5 mm; 6, 0.2 mm; 7, 0.1 mm. © MNHN, Paris.