Liphistius nabang Yu, Zhang & Zhang 2021
Creators: name: Schwendinger, Peter J.
name: Huber, Siegfried
name: Lehmann-Graber, Christina
name: Ono, Hirotsugu
name: Aung, Mu Mu
name: Hongpadharakiree, Komsan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Liphistiidae
Liphistius
Liphistius nabang

description: Liphistius nabang Yu, Zhang & Zhang, 2021
Liphistius nabang Yu, Zhang & Zhang, 2021: 36-40, figs 1-4 (description of males and females).
Types: MHBU-ARA-00020000 to MHBU-ARA-00020004; male holotype, 1 male and 3 female paratypes; China, Yunnan Province, Yingjiang County, Nabang (24°45’07.64”N, 97°33’47.02”E and 24°45’27.13”N, 97°33’52.86”E), 265-283 m; 2.VIII.2019 and 2.X.2019; leg. Q. Ji and K. Yu, C. Zhang & S.Y. Zhang. Types not examined; no additional material available.
Diagnosis: Distinguished by the following combination of characters: tegulum somewhat triangular in shape, with distinctly elevated distal edge and V-shaped proximal edge; distal contrategular edge with widely rounded prodorsal protrusion and pointed apex; paracymbium with retrolateral-proximal heel; cumulus distinctly elevated (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3); vulval plate strongly bent ventrad in proximal part; poreplate with reduced anterior lobes and without anterolateral processes; posterior stalk short, wider than poreplate; a pair of lateral “bulging margins” between poreplate and posterior stalk (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 4).
Additions to description and taxonomic remarks: This species is most similar and probably very closely related to L. cupreus sp. nov. and L. platnicki sp. nov., which are also geographically the closest congeners. Liphistius nabang shares with these two species a number of characters which are taxonomically more or less important. These are: an enlarged spine on an elevated base dorsal of the tibial apophysis (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3D; Figs 21 C-D, 23C-D), a relatively long and narrow paracymbium with a distinctly conical distal side and a distinctly elevated cumulus (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3D-F; Fig. 21 A-B; Fig. 23 A-B), a more or less distinctly elevated distal edge of the tegulum (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3A-B, D-E; Fig. 21K; Fig. 23 I-M; absent in some males of L. cupreus sp. nov., Fig. 21M) and a reduced proximal ledge on the dorsal side of the contrategulum (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3A-B; Figs 21 E-F, H-I, K-N, 23F, I-K) in males, plus a similar vulval plate with more or less strongly reduced anterior poreplate lobes and with a wide (at least as wide as poreplate) posterior stalk in females (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 4; Figs 22, 24). It is not clear from the original description and illustrations if L. nabang also shares with these two new species a pronounced subdistal suture on the ventral side of the palpal tarsus. Liphistius nabang differs from these two similar species by possessing a rather triangular tegulum (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3A cf. Figs 21K, 23 J-L) and a retrolateral-proximal heel on the paracymbium (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 3E; absent in L. cupreus and L. platnicki sp. nov., Figs 21A, 23A) in males, as well as by a wider posterior stalk and a shallowly invaginated or slightly arched distal poreplate margin (instead of always invaginated, in most cases more deeply so than on L. nabang) (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 4 cf. Figs 22, 24). The widely separated lateral pair of “bulging margins” of L. nabang, situated on the ventral side of the vulval plate between the poreplate and the posterior stalk (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 4), is a structure that we have not observed in any other congeners and which appears to be autapomorphic. We assume that these “bulging margins” are exceptionally widely separated, thickened posterior poreplate margins.
CL and CW of the male holotype are given as 4.89 and 5.11 (Yu et al., 2021: 37; no measurements are given for the male paratype), which suggests that this structure is wider than long, something we have not observed in any other Liphistius species. This odd ratio is not evident from the corresponding photo (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 2A), where the carapace looks clearly longer than wide. If measured in a position with the anterior and posterior carapace margin at the same focal plane, the measurements are probably different.
Although not mentioned in the original description of L. nabang, photos of the male holotype and of a female paratype therein (Yu et al., 2021: fig. 2A-B) indicate that prefoveal setae are missing in both sexes. Within the birmanicus -group this unusual lack (if confirmed) is only shared with the closely related L. cupreus sp. nov.
Variation: See Yu et al., 2021: 37, 40. For carapace measurements see Table 1.
Distribution: This species is known only from the type locality, which lies at low altitudes right at the border between the Yunnan Province of China and the Kachin State of Myanmar. It presumably occurs on both sides of the border.
description: Published as part of Schwendinger, Peter J., Huber, Siegfried, Lehmann-Graber, Christina, Ono, Hirotsugu, Aung, Mu Mu & Hongpadharakiree, Komsan, 2022, A taxonomic revision of the Liphistius birmanicus-group (Araneae: Liphistiidae) with the description of five new species, pp. 375-424 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 129 (2) on page 421, DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0083, http://zenodo.org/record/7761487