Dolomedes boiei ( Doleschall, 1859 )

Sankaran, Pradeep M. & Kadam, Gautam, 2025, On the spider family Dolomedidae Simon, 1876 in India and Sri Lanka (Arachnida: Araneae), Zootaxa 5594 (2), pp. 258-268 : 265-266

Dolomedes boiei ( Doleschall, 1859) nomen dubium

Figs 25–30

Lycosa (Tarentuloides) boiei Doleschall, 1859: 7 , plate XIV, fig. 7 (♀).

Tarentuloides boiei — Karsch 1892: 297 (subadult ♀).

Dolomedes boiei — Simon 1898: 309 (transfer from Tarentuloides).

Type material. Syntype ♀, INDONESIA: Java, date unknown, collector unknown, not examined .

Other material examined. Subadult ♀ ( ZMB6787 ), CEYLON (= SRI LANKA), date unknown, leg. Paul & Fritz Sarasin, examined based on photographs .

Description. For description of the female, see Doleschall (1859). Male. Unknown.

Remarks. Doleschall (1859) described L. boiei (now D. boiei ) based on a single female specimen collected from the island of Java, in Indonesia. This species is known only from verbal description that lacked genitalic details and illustrations, which made its identity obscure. Though Karsch (1892) recorded this species from Sri Lanka, based on a subadult female specimen ( Figs 25–29 ), his identification is doubtful. It is apparent that Karsch (1892) never examined the type of L. boiei , instead he used its original description, which provides only a few somatic details supported by the illustrations of habitus and eye group ( Doleschall 1859: fig. 7), for identifying his specimen. Karsch (1892) proposed the conspecificity of his specimen with L. boiei based only on a rufous median stripe [light stripe, per Karsch (1892)] that was present dorsally on the thoracic region of L. boiei . An examination of the specimen described by Karsch from Sri Lanka showed that it has white bands laterally on its opisthosoma ( Figs 25, 27 ). However, Doleschall (1859) never mentioned this feature for L. boiei . Moreover, the type locality of L. boiei is in Java, and is lying approximately 3777 Km away from Sri Lanka, which also challenges the assumption regarding the occurrence of L. boiei in Sri Lanka. The original description of the Sri Lankan species D. karschi ( Strand 1913) shows that it has lateral white bands on its opisthosoma similar to those of Karsch’s specimen ( Figs 3, 5 ). Strand (1913) also doubted about the similarity of D. karschi with the specimen described as D. boiei by Karsch. The similarity in the opisthosomal pattern, and the same geographic distribution suggests that Karsch’s specimen may be conspecific with D. karschi , and not with D. boiei .

The whereabouts of the type material of D. boiei is unknown, and it may be lost as it is not available in possible depositories such as NHM, Vienna (Hörweg, pers. comm.) or HNHM, Hungary (Lazányi, pers. comm.). The original description ( Doleschall 1859) gives no relevant features to differentiate this species from its known congeners.These, combined with the absence of a precise type locality within Java render this species unrecognisable. Therefore, we propose to consider D. boiei as a nomen dubium.

Distribution. Indonesia (Java), and Sri Lanka (doubtful; exact collecting locality is unknown; Doleschall 1859; Karsch 1892; Fig. 31 ).

Figures

FIGURE 31. Currently known distribution records of the family Dolomedidae in India and Sri Lanka. ○ Dolomedes boiei (Doleschall, 1859) (doubtful record), ● Dolomedes karschi Strand, 1913, ▲ Dolomedes mizhoanus Kishida, 1936.

FIGURES 25–30. Dolomedes boiei (Doleschall, 1859), subadult female specimen described by Karsch from Sri Lanka. 25 Habitus, dorsal; 26 same, ventral; 27 same, frontal. 28 Eye group, frontal. 29 Genital area showing pre-epigyne, ventral. 30 Labels associated with the specimen in the vial. Figures provided without scale. Photographs by Jason Dunlop, © Zoologisches Museum, Berlin.

FIGURES 3–10. Dolomedes karschi Strand, 1913, holotype male. 3 Habitus, dorsal; 4 same, ventral; 5 same, retrolateral; 6 same, frontal. 7–9 Left palp: 7 prolateral; 8 ventral; 9 retrolateral. 10 Label associated with the specimen in the vial. Abbreviations: BCA, basal cymbium apophysis; C, conductor; DTP, distal tegular projection; E, embolus; F, fulcrum; LSA, lateral subterminal apophysis; MA, median apophysis; RTA, retrolateral tibial apophysis; S, saddle; ST, subtegulum; T, tegulum; VTA, ventral tibial apophysis. Scale bars: 3–6, 1 mm; 7–9, 0.1 mm. Photographs by Kuang-Ping Yu, © Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt, Germany.