Olios sericeus ( Kroneberg, 1875 )

Hu, Changhao, Zhang, He & Zhong, Yang, 2025, New data on the huntsman spiders (Araneae, Sparassidae) of China, Biodiversity Data Journal 13, pp. e 153724-e 153724 : e153724-

Olios sericeus ( Kroneberg, 1875)

Sparassus sericeus : Kroneberg (1875): 28, pl. 3, fig. 19 (description of male and female).

Olios sericeus : Simon (1880): 298; Jäger and Otto (2007): 20, figs. 1–16; Tabrizi et al. (2015): 338, figs. 1–4; Moradmand et al. (2015): 78, figs. 1 A – E and 2 A – C; Khasayeva and Huseynov (2019): 359, figs. 9–10; Nadolny and Yemets (2024): 11, figs. 1 A – G and 2 A – S.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Yaoyu Jiang; individualCount: 2; sex: 1 male 1 female; lifeStage: adult; Location: continent: Asia; country: China; countryCode: CN; stateProvince: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; county: Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Yining City; verbatimElevation: 790 m; verbatimLatitude: 43°54’34”N; verbatimLongitude: 81°16’38”E; Event: year: 2023; month: 6; day: 25

Description

Male: Total length 8.5, carapace 3.8 length, 3. 8 width, anterior width of carapace 2.1, opisthosoma 4.7 length, 3.5 width. Eyes AME 0.24, ALE 0.24, PME 0.23, PLE 0.25, AME – AME 0.20, AME – ALE 0.05, PME – PME 0.31, PME – PLE 0.30, AME – PME 0.21, ALE – PLE 0.18, clypeus height of AME 0.10, clypeus height of ALE 0.20. Spination: Palp: 121, 000, 1001; Fe: I – III 323, IV 321; Pa: I – IV 000; Ti: I – III 2124, IV 2024; Mt: I – III 2024, IV 3035. Measurements of palp and legs: Palp 4.8 (1.6, 0.4, 0.9, –, 1.9), I 20.0 (5.6, 1.8, 5.7, 5.2, 1.7), II 22.8 (6.6, 1.9, 6.6, 5.9, 1.8), III 15.2 (4.9, 1.4, 4.1, 3.6, 1.2), IV 17.2 (5.2, 1.5, 4.5, 4.5, 1.5). Leg formula: II-I-IV-III. Chelicerae with two anterior and five posterior teeth.

Palp as in diagnosis. Tibia almost three times longer than wide. Retrolateral tibial apophysis ( RTA) horn-shaped, extended dorsally, arising from distal tibia. Cymbium almost 1.5 times longer than tibia. Subtegulum (ST) located basal-retrolaterally. Tegular apophysis ( TA) massive, with serrated prolateral margin. Conductor (C) semicircular, covered by embolus (E) in ventral view. Embolus (E) curved and small, arising from tegulum at 12 o’clock position, with a small and pointed projection (Fig. 2 ).

Carapace light yellow, with brown fovea, head region with five brown longitudinal lines. Chelicerae brown, with brown hairs. Sternum light yellow. Endites and labium yellow, with white distal part. Palps and legs orange. Opisthosoma yellow, with brown spots, posterior dorsum with some yellow inverted V-shaped lines, venter with two yellow longitudinal lines. Spinnerets yellow (Fig. 4 A and B).

Female: Total length 10.3, carapace 4.4 length, 5.0 width, anterior width of carapace 2.9, opisthosoma 5.9 length, 4.0 width. Eyes AME 0.22, ALE 0.24, PME 0.23, PLE 0.23, AME – AME 0.31, AME – ALE 0.20, PME – PME 0.51, PME – PLE 0.39, AME – PME 0.39, ALE – PLE 0.30, clypeus height of AME 0.11, clypeus height of ALE 0.15. Spination: Palp: 131, 001, 1011, 1012; Fe: I 223, II – III 323, IV 321; Pa: I – IV 000; Ti: I – III 2024, IV 2004; Mt: I – III 2024, IV 3035. Measurements of palp and legs: Palp 5.6 (1.7, 0.6, 1.2, –, 2.1), I 19.0 (5.5, 2.1, 5.0, 4.7, 1.7), II 21.2 (6.2, 2.1, 5.8, 5.3, 1.8), III 15.2 (4.7, 1.7, 3.7, 3.7, 1.4), IV 16.7 (5.3, 1.7, 4.1, 4.2, 1.4). Leg formula: II-I-IV-III. Chelicerae with two to three anterior and six to seven posterior teeth.

Epigyne as in diagnosis. Epigynal field almost as long as wide. Lateral lobes (LL) almost two thirds length of epigynal field, with wide U-shaped anterior margins and median slit diverging triangularly posterior. Internal duct system with glandular pores ( GP) close to copulatory openings (CO). Fertilisation ducts ( FD) located posteriorly (Fig. 3 ).

Colouration as in male, generally lighter (Fig. 4 C and D).

Diagnosis

Males of Olios sericeus are similar to those of O. japonicus Jäger & Ono, 2000 (cf. Fig. 2 and figs. 10–13 in Jäger and Ono (2000)) and O. mahabangkawitus Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 (cf. Fig. 2 and fig. 166 b in Barrion and Barrion (1995) and fig. 16 in Jäger and Ono (2000)) in having horn-shaped retrolateral tibial apophysis ( RTA), basal-retrolaterally located subtegulum (ST), embolus (E) arising from tegulum at 12 o’clock position, but can be distinguished by: 1. Retrolateral tibial apophysis ( RTA) extended dorsally in retrolateral view (vs. extended ventrally in O. japonicus and O. mahabangkawitus ); 2. Tegular apophysis ( TA) massive, almost three times wider than embolus (E) (vs. almost as wide as embolus (E) in O. japonicus and O. mahabangkawitus ); and 3. Embolus (E) with a small and pointed projection (vs. absent in O. japonicus and O. mahabangkawitus ). Females of O. sericeus are similar to those of O. rossettii (Leardi, 1901) (cf. Fig. 3 and figs. 153–155 in Jäger (2020)) in having touching lateral lobes (LL), but can be distinguished by: 1. Anterior margins of lateral lobes (LL) wide U-shaped (vs. V-shaped in O. rossettii ); and 2. Median slit diverging triangularly posteriorly (vs. not diverging in O. rossettii ).

Distribution

China (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, new record, Fig. 9 ), Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Notes

Olios sericeus belongs to the Olios rossettii - group, which is characterised by a small U-shaped embolus (E) arising centrally to sub-centrally from the tegulum in males and strongly sclerotised epigyne with a hardly traceable internal duct system in females ( Jäger 2020). This species was originally described by Kroneberg 150 years ago based on two male and seven female specimens from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan ( Kroneberg 1875); since then, few additional descriptions of this species have been provided ( Jäger and Otto 2007, Tabrizi et al. 2015, Moradmand et al. 2015, Nadolny and Yemets 2024). Therefore, we re-describe O. sericeus , based on specimens collected from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.

Nadolny and Yemets (2024) noted that specimens of O. sericeus from Crimea and Asia show differences in the details of their copulatory organs. Specimens from Crimea have a longer cymbium and the vulva is three times wider than epigynal collar. In contrast, specimens from Asia have a shorter cymbium and the vulva is twice as wide as the epigynal collar. Our specimens from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, match the characteristics of the Asian specimens provided by Nadolny and Yemets (2024).

Figures

Figure 2. Left male palp of Olios sericeus (Kroneberg, 1875) from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. A prolateral view; B ventral view; C retrolateral view; D embolus, ventral view; E embolus, retrolateral view. Abbreviations: C conductor; E embolus; RTA retrolateral tibial apophysis; Sp spermophor; ST subtegulum; TA tegular apophysis. Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A – C); 0.1 mm (D, E).

Figure 3. Epigyne of Olios sericeus (Kroneberg, 1875) from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. A ventral view; B dorsal view. Abbreviations: CD copulatory duct; CO copulatory opening; FD fertilisation duct; GP glandular pore; LL lateral lobe; MS median septum. Scale bars: 0.5 mm.

Figure 4. Habitus of Olios sericeus (Kroneberg, 1875) from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. A male, dorsal view; B male, ventral view; C female, dorsal view; D female, ventral view. Scale bars: 2 mm.

Figure 9. Collection locality of sparassid specimens in the current paper from China. 1 Heteropoda acris Korai & Jäger, 2024; 2 Olios sericeus (Kroneberg, 1875); 3 O. suung Jäger, 2012; 4 Rhitymna plana Jäger, 2003; 5 Thelcticopis lini sp. nov.