Platnickina Koçak & Kemal, 2008

Huang, Guolong, Liu, Jie & Hu, Changhao, 2025, Taxonomic notes of the cobweb spider genus Platnickina Koçak & Kemal, 2008 (Araneae, Theridiidae, Theridiinae), with descriptions of two new species from southern China, ZooKeys 1250, pp. 135-154 : 135-154

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1250.158643
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:685D1F3A-3C56-454C-8BEC-F83544CC299E
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16969831
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4DA7040D-3735-51C3-B8AF-094485E01FE7
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Platnickina Koçak & Kemal, 2008
status

Treatment

Genus Platnickina Koçak & Kemal, 2008 View in CoL

Keijia Yoshida 2001 View in CoL , type species Keijia maculata Yoshida, 2001 View in CoL (= Platnickina maculata View in CoL ): 169.

Platnickina Koçak and Kemal 2008 View in CoL (= Keijia Yoshida, 2001 View in CoL ): 3.

Diagnosis.

See Yoshida (2001) and Vanuytven (2021).

Distribution.

Cosmopolitan excluding Oceania ( Vanuytven 2021).

Remarks.

Based on the differences in the morphological characteristics of the copulatory organs among Platnickina species, we have divided them into three species groups: antoni , maculata , and sterninotata groups.

The antoni group

Diagnosis. The antoni group (figs 194–197, 202, 203, 207, 215–218 in Levi 1957) can be distinguished from the maculata and sterninotata groups by the following combination of characteristics: (1) the ventral part of the median apophysis is anteriorly elongate and pointed; (2) the embolus extends to the dorsal bulb; (3) the diameters of the posterior part of the copulatory ducts are almost as wide as the spermathecae.

Composition. Platnickina alabamensis (Gertsch & Archer, 1942) , P. antoni (Keyserling, 1884) , and P. punctosparsa (Emerton, 1882) .

Distribution. North America.

The maculata group

Diagnosis. The maculata group (Figs 1 A – E View Figure 1 , 2 A – C View Figure 2 , 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 6 View Figure 6 , 7 View Figure 7 ; figs 359–363 in Levy 1998; figs 46–49 in Yoshida 2001; figs 61, 62, 63 A, B, 64 in Gao and Li 2014) can be distinguished from the antoni and sterninotata groups by the following combination of characteristics: (1) the broad tegular apophysis; (2) the thick and cow-horn-shaped embolus (except Platnickina obscuratum ( Zhu, 1998) , comb. nov.); (3) the copulatory ducts straight or slightly curved (except S-shaped in P. qionghaiensis ( Zhu, 1998)) , as long as or shorter than the diameters of spermathecae.

The copulatory organs of the maculata group are similar to those of Simitidion Wunderlich, 1992 in having a cow-horn-shaped embolus and an epigynal atrium (cf. Figs 1 A – E View Figure 1 , 2 A – C View Figure 2 , 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 6 View Figure 6 , 7 View Figure 7 ; figs 359–363 in Levy 1998; figs 46–49 in Yoshida 2001; figs 61, 62, 63 A, B, 64 in Gao and Li 2014 and figs 595–604 in Wunderlich 1992; figs 1–16 in Knoflach 1996; figs 145–148 in Agnarsson 2007) but can be distinguished from Simitidion by: (1) the tegulum ventrally with a pit and the basal part of the embolus with a process; the two structures form a locking mechanism (vs without a locking mechanism between the tegulum and embolus); (2) the median apophysis is separate from the tegular apophysis (vs the median apophysis is fused with the tegular apophysis); (3) the tegular apophysis is wider than the embolus, short and not extending beyond the cymbium, (vs almost as thin as the embolus, long, and extending beyond the cymbium); (4) the copulatory openings without depression (vs with one or two deep depressions).