Ladissa Simon, 1907

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 : 133-134

Ladissa Simon, 1907

Ladissa latecingulata Simon, 1907 [species inquirenda]

Figs 1–3

Ladissa latecingulata Simon, 1907: 238 (juvenile). Murphy 2007: 46, fig. 284 (juvenile).

Type material. Syntypes juveniles, PAKISTAN: Battagram: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province: Ajmera (=Adjemera) (34°40’N 73°01’E; 1098 m a.s.l.), date unknown, Peckham leg., repository MNHN, Paris (AR1682), examined based on photographs .

Remarks. This species has to be considered a species inquirenda due to the immature stage of the syntypes ( Figs 1–2 ). The shape of the habitus of this species suggests a possible similarity with those of the genus Micaria Westring, 1851 , but this will have to be further discussed when more material will be available. It is also uncertain where the type locality ‘Adjemera’ of this species is located (see also Singh & Singh 2021). Simon (1907) in his paper treats African Arachnida collected by L. Fea in his expeditions to Africa during 1904. However, no present locality names in Africa match with this name except Tetekron-Adjemera (45°20’N 21°40’W), which is located in Ghana. However, this locality name appeared only in a single taxonomic publication ( Estrella & Devesa 2014); otherwise, no information of this locality in Africa is available. Simon (1907) described L. latecingulata based on specimens collected by Peckham. It is likely that, together with another two African species of Ladissa described in the same paper, Simon included this species too, which was not collected by Fea and did not occur in Africa. There is an Ajmera in the present-day Pakistan. It is plausible that Simon described L. latecingulata based on specimens collected by Peckham from Ajmera, which was part of British India in the early 20 th century. It is concluded that the type locality of L. latecingulata is not in Africa, but is in Pakistan (formerly part of British India), which also hosts the type locality of Ladissa inda ( Simon, 1897) , the generotype ( Simon 1897). This confirms that the genus Ladissa is not recorded in India.

Distribution. Pakistan: Ajmera (present data).

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Ladissa latecingulata Simon, 1907, syntypes juveniles. 1 habitus, dorsal. 2 same, ventral. 3 original labels found in the syntypes vial. Scale bars: 1–2, 5 mm. © MNHN, Paris.