Poecilochroa tridotus Caleb & Mathai, 2013

Sankaran, Pradeep M. & Caleb, John T. D., 2025, On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: VI. Genera Ladissa Simon, 1907, Melicymnis Simon, 1885, and Poecilochroa Westring, 1874 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), Zootaxa 5673 (1), pp. 132-142 : 137

Poecilochroa tridotus Caleb & Mathai, 2013

Figs 12–15

Poecilochroa tridotus Caleb & Mathai, 2013: 2 , fig. 1a–f (♀).

Type material. Holotype ♀, INDIA: Tamil Nadu: Chennai: Madras Christian College campus: scrub jungle patches (12°55’13’’N 80°07’25’’E; 32 m a.s.l.), 18 March 2013, T. D. John Caleb leg., repository ZSI-SRC, Chennai (I/SP17), examined.

Diagnosis. Females of P. tridotus are most similar to the females of P. barmani as both share W-shaped posterior epigynal margin, epigyne with anteromedially placed epigynal hood, and long oval primary spermathecae lying parallel to each other, but can be distinguished from the latter species by three white spots on the dorsal opisthosoma (vs. single transverse white band in P. barmani ), and large and closely spaced primary spermathecae (vs. smaller and widely spaced in P. barmani ) (cf. Figs 8–10 and Figs 12–14 ).

Description. Female. For a description of the female, see Caleb & Mathai (2013).

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. India: Tamil Nadu ( Caleb & Mathai 2013).

Remarks. The differences between female genitalia of P. barmani and P. tridotus as mentioned in the diagnosis are very small. In fact, they might indicate intraspecific variations of a single species - P. barmani - in which case P. tridotus would become a junior synonym of P. barmani . However, confirmation requires the description of the male sex of both species, which are currently unknown. Until then, P. tridotus and P. barmani are considered distinct species.

Species transferred to another genus

Figures

FIGURES 12–15. Poecilochroa tridotus Caleb & Mathai, 2013, holotype female. 12 habitus, dorsal. 13 epigyne, ventral. 14 same, dorsal. 15 original labels found in the holotype vial. Scale bars: 12, 2 mm; 13–14, 0.1 mm.

FIGURES 8–11. Poecilochroa barmani Tikader, 1982, holotype female. 8 habitus, dorsal. 9 epigyne, ventral. 10 same, dorsal. 11 original labels found in the holotype vial. Scale bars: 8, 1 mm; 9–10, 0.2 mm.