Thelcticopis rufula Pocock 1901
Creators: name: Sankaran, Pradeep M.
name: Sherwood, Danniella
name: Jäger, Peter
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Sparassidae
Thelcticopis
Thelcticopis rufula

description: Thelcticopis rufula Pocock, 1901
Figs 17–18, 27
Thelcticopis rufulus Pocock, 1901: 488 (♂).
Thelcticopis rufula Pocock: Reimoser 1934: 486 (♀, without description and illustration).
Type material. Holotype ♂, INDIA: Nilgiri Hills [ca. 11°22’N, 76°46’E; 1936 m a.s.l.], date unknown, E.W. Oates leg. (NHMUK, without registration number; examined).
Other material examined. INDIA: Tamil Nadu: 1 ♀, Dindigul, Maryland, Tiger shola [ca. 10°14’N, 77°31’E; 1886 m a.s.l.], 1926–1927, J. Carl & K. Escher leg. (sub. T. rufula; MHNG, without registration number; examined).
Diagnosis. Males of T. rufula are similar to those of T. nalandica comb. rest. and T. paripes comb. rest. in having a massive U-shaped embolus with a centrally situated tip and a large conductor situated in retrolateral half of tegulum, but can be distinguished from these two species by the distinctly shorter dRTA and the conductor having a blunt tip (Figs 17D–E, 18A–B) vs. long dRTA reaching distally well into proximal half of tegulum and conductor with acuminate tip (Figs 13A–B, 14A–B, 15A–B).
Supplementary description. Male (holotype; Figs 17A–B, 18C–E). Colouration: brown [colour after Pocock 1901: carapace, chelicera castaneous; sternum, legs ochre-yellow, all these clothed with grey-white or yellowish setae; opisthosoma dirty yellow-grey; dorsal opisthosoma with a median band of black spots; laterals provided with black spots; tibia I–II provided with six pairs of ventro-lateral spines]. Thoracic striae evident. Fovea deep, longitudinal, straight. Chelicerae with three promarginal and six retromarginal teeth (Fig. 18D). Body length 11.5. Carapace 5.9 long, 5.0 wide. Opisthosoma 5.6 long, 3.59 wide. Chelicerae 0.98 long. Eye sizes and interdistances (Fig. 18C): AME 0.35, ALE 0.36, PME 0.28, PLE 0.25; AME–AME 0.49, AME–ALE 0.64, AME–PME 0.46, ALE–PLE 0.35, PME–PME 0.79, PME–PLE 0.81. Palp (Figs 17C–E, 18A–B): cymbium with small proximo-retrolateral bulge (Figs 17D, 18A), with a brush of cymbial scopula dorsally in distal half (Fig. 17E). Tibia short, i.e., half as long as cymbium (Fig. 18A), with short RTA; vRTA long, broad, claw-like in ventral view, dRTA short, conical; with a short, triangular VDL (Figs 17C–E, 18A–B). Tegular apophysis arising from tegulum in 4.30-o’ clock position, with inwardly directed apex (Figs 17C–E, 18A–B). Conductor arising prolaterally, broad, its tip more or less proximad (Figs 17D–E, 18A–B). Embolus covered by conductor, visible centrally (Fig. 18A).
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. India (Nilgiri Hills) (Pocock 1901) (Fig. 27).
Remarks. The RTA of the palp of holotype was found detached from the palp (Figs 17C–E) when recently recurated by DS, and it is unknown when or how this damage occurred; the palp was previously intact in the early 2000s (PJ pers. obs., Figs 18A–B). Initially, Pocock (1901) labelled this species with the manuscript name ‘ T. parvulus ’, which was never published. Occasionally, Pocock’s historical spider material carries manuscript names that differ from the valid names he later provided to the species when they were published (DS pers. obs.). Considering the somatic colouration and locality details, T. ajax could be the matching sex of T. rufula, and the female specimen identified as ‘ T. rufula ’ by Reimoser (1934) and stored at MHNG (Fig. 19) could be a misidentified, unknown species of Thelcticopis.
description: Published as part of Sankaran, Pradeep M., Sherwood, Danniella & Jäger, Peter, 2024, On the identity of species of the huntsman spider genus Thelcticopis Karsch, 1884 (Araneae: Sparassidae: Sparianthinae) from India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, pp. 301-338 in Zootaxa 5463 (3) on pages 323-325, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5463.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/11611277