Thelcticopis ajax 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 ajax

description: Thelcticopis ajax Pocock, 1901
Figs 2–3, 27
Thelcticopis ajax Pocock, 1901: 488 (♀). Type material. Holotype ♀, INDIA: Tamil Nadu: Ootacamund (=Ooty/ Udhagamandalam) [ca. 11°23’N, 76°41’E; 2249 m a.s.l.], date unknown, G.F. Hampson leg., No. 4 (NHMUK, without registration number; examined).
Diagnosis. Females of T. ajax are distinguished from those of all other known females of Thelcticopis by the short median septum (including region with lateral lobes) in comparison to the total length of the epigynal field, i.e., approximately a third of epigynal field length (vs. half the length or longer in all other species with known females) (e.g., Figs 2D, 3A vs. Figs 6C, 7A, 8D, 9A, 10D, 11D–E, 12C, 14F, 16A, 22D–E, 24C).
Supplementary description. Female (holotype; Figs 2A–C, 3C–E). Colouration: dark red-brown [after Pocock 1901: carapace and legs deep black-brown; carapace, opisthosoma and legs clothed with grey-brown setae; thoracic striae evident]. Opisthosoma dorsally without pattern, ventrally with median band. Eyes in two rows, anterior straight, posterior procurved; AME largest, PME smallest, lateral eyes of about the same size (Fig. 3C). Chelicerae with 3 promarginal and 6–7 retromarginal teeth, anterior teeth with increasing size distally (Figs 3D–E). Body length 21.9. Carapace 10.0 long. Opisthosoma 11.9 long. Chelicerae 2.65 long. Legs: I 27.49 (8.02, 4.32, 7.40, 6.20, 1.55), II 26.85 (8.04, 4.02, 7.32, 5.93, 1.54), III 22.80 (6.93, 3.45, 5.72, 4.92, 1.78), IV 26.32 (7.30, 3.37, 6.30, 7.09, 2.26). Leg formula: 1423. Spination of legs: femur I–III 323, tibia I–II 000(12), III–IV 0008, metatarsus I–III 0002, IV 0004. Genitalia (Figs 2D–E, 3A–B): epigynal field longer than wide, anteriorly narrower, roughly pentagonal, with two pairs of lateral slit sensilla medially (Figs 2D, 3A). Lateral lobes short, i.e., about one third of epigynal field length, obliquely oriented, sclerotized, distinctly separated, without posterior projections (Figs 2D, 3A). Median septum with one pair of lateral depressions anteriorly and a broad median ridge (Figs 2D, 3A). Copulatory ducts sclerotized, elongate oval in shape, medially broad, with S-shaped narrow part dorsally in posterior half (Figs 2E, 3B). Fertilisation ducts narrow, their tips latero-distad (Fig. 3B).
Male. Unknown.
Distribution. India (Tamil Nadu) (Pocock 1901) (Fig. 27).
Remarks. The holotype of T. ajax is in fact a female specimen (Fig. 2), which is not noted by the World Spider Catalog (2024). The sex of the holotype can be elucidated in the original description, where Pocock (1901) used the word ‘ Vulva’ at the 7 th line of species description, indicating that the type specimen of T. ajax is a female. However, he did not provide the ‘female symbol’ along with the description as in other cases, which is obviously a printing error/ lapsus calami also found with the description of T. hercules (see below).
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 304-306, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5463.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/11611277