Labahitha Zonstein, Marusik & Magalhaes 2017
Creators: name: Magalhaes, Ivan L. F.
name: Berry, James W.
name: Koh, Joseph K. H.
name: Gray, Michael R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Filistatidae
Labahitha

description: Genus Labahitha Zonstein, Marusik & Magalhaes, 2017
Mystes Bristowe, 1938: 319 (preoccupied in Coleoptera; see Zonstein et al. 2017).
Labahitha Zonstein, Marusik & Magalhaes, 2017: 305.
Type species
Mystes oonopiformis Bristowe, 1938, by monotypy.
Emended diagnosis
Labahitha is closely related to Wandella Gray, 1994 and Yardiella Gray, 1994, with whom it shares a dorsal paraembolic lamina on the palp of males (Fig. 5), excavated tegulum, microteeth combs on the tegulum (Fig. 5H), and complete absence of the macrosetae on the legs of females. Males can be distinguished from Wandella and Yardiella by: (1) the rounded clypeus, similar to that of the female (Figs 7, 17) (vs anterior margin of the carapace straight, with acute clypeus in males), (2) paraembolic lamina, which has a ragged margin (Figs 5, 12A–D) (vs entire margin), and may be divided into two parts (Figs 5, 15, 20) or reduced to a small proximal keel almost completely fused to the tegulum (Figs 12A–D, 25) (vs a single free-ending, unfused part); in addition, they usually have an apical macroseta on the ventro-retrolateral face of metatarsal I (vs macroseta usually absent; present in at least W. murrayensis Gray, 1994). Females are distinguished from Wandella and Yardiella by the less contrasting colouration pattern, with weak or absent submarginal bands, leg rings and chevron pattern on the abdomen (Figs 2–3) (vs submarginal bands, chevron and leg rings well-marked). The female genitalia is variable, with paired (Figs 6, 12) or unpaired (Fig. 19) receptacles; the median receptacles may be well-developed (Fig. 12) or reduced (Fig. 6).
Relationships
Labahitha forms a clade with Wandella and Yardiella on the basis of shared possession of a paraembolic lamina with micro-teeth (Figs 5, 12A–D) and micro-teeth in the male clypeus (Fig. 23F) (see also Gray 1994; Magalhaes 2016; Zonstein et al. 2017).
Tentative transfers
The following three species are known only from the females mentioned in the original descriptions, which include poor figures, if any at all. Based on the textual description and their distribution, they are here provisionally transferred to Labahitha, taking into account that their current placement in the mainly Eurasian genus Pritha (proposed by Lehtinen 1967: 260) is poorly justified. Examination of their type material should be carried out to confirm the generic placement and clarify their identities, as it is not unlikely that they are synonyms of the other species treated here. This is especially important in the case of Filistata insularis Thorell, 1891, which has nomenclatorial priority over any of the names treated in this paper.
(1) Labahitha littoralis (Roewer, 1938) comb. nov. (Filistata littoralis Roewer, 1938: 8, fig. 3. Female holotype from Indonesia, New Guinea, Kamana, 19 Mar. 1929, deposited in the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Belgium, not examined). Roewer (1938) describes the colouration of the carapace as yellowish brown, without spots or markings; the abdomen as dark grey; the legs as pale yellow and uniform, except for the darker femora. This is similar to pattern in other species of Labahitha (Fig. 2C).
(2) Labahitha insularis (Thorell, 1891) comb. nov. (F. insularis Thorell, 1891: 17. Female (subadult?) from India, Car Nicobar, repository unknown, not examined). Lehtinen (1967) mentions that the types are deposited in Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria, but the only specimens identified as Filistata insularis in this collection come from Sumatra and were collected in 1938 (C. Hörweg, pers. com.), and thus cannot possibly be the types. The description mentions a dark spider, consistent with some species of this genus; the type locality is the same as that of L. nicobarensis (Tikader, 1977) comb. nov. and it is not unlikely the two species are synonyms (Fig. 2A).
(3) Labahitha sundaica (Kulczyński, 1908) comb. nov. (Filistata sundaica Kulczyński, 1908: 579. Female holotype from Indonesia, Java, deposited in Instytut Zoologiczny, Polska Akademia Nauk, Poland, labelled Filistata biroi according to Lehtinen 1967, not examined). Kulczyński (1908) states that the carapace, the sternum, palps and legs are pale yellow, the abdomen is hazelnut brown, and that the mouth parts and distal portion of the legs are suffused with rusty red. This is similar to pattern in other species of Labahitha (Fig. 2C).
Composition
Eight species surely belong in the genus: Labahitha fuscata (Nakatsudi, 1943) comb. nov., Labahitha garciai (Simon, 1892) comb. nov., Labahitha gibsonhilli (Savory, 1943), Labahitha marginata (Kishida, 1936) comb. nov., Labahitha nicobarensis (Tikader, 1977) comb. nov., Labahitha oonopiformis (Bristowe, 1938), Labahitha platnicki sp. nov. and Labahitha ryukyuensis (Ono, 2013) comb. nov. Four other species are tentatively allocated here: Labahitha incerta sp. nov., Labahitha littoralis (Roewer, 1938) comb. nov., Labahitha insularis (Thorell, 1891) comb. nov. and Labahitha sundaica (Kulczyński, 1908) comb. nov.
Distribution
The genus is mainly distributed in Oceania and adjacent areas (Fig. 1). Species occur in a wide range spanning the Seychelles, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea and several islands in the Pacific Ocean; records from the American continent likely represent human-mediated introduction. Material examined by us from India, Sri Lanka, China, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand belongs to other Prithinae genera, thus we suspect that Labahitha is not diverse in continental Asia.
description: Published as part of Magalhaes, Ivan L. F., Berry, James W., Koh, Joseph K. H. & Gray, Michael R., 2022, Labahitha spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Filistatidae) from islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, pp. 1-51 in European Journal of Taxonomy 805 (1) on pages 3-6, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.805.1693, http://zenodo.org/record/6373826