Stoliczka insignis O. Pickard-Cambridge 1885
Creators: name: Marusik, Yuri M.
name: Nadolny, Anton A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Pisauridae
Stoliczka
Stoliczka insignis

description: Stoliczka insignis O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885
Figs 1‒20
StOliczka insiGnis O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885: 77 (♀).
Type material. All specimens are from the jar #1685 (OUMNH): vial #2—13♀ 6 cocoons; vial #11—3♀; vial #13— 7♀ 2 cocoons; vial #14—4j 5♀ 8 cocoons; vial #15— 4♀. All specimens are partially faded. The female with an egg cocoon attached to the spinnerets from the vial #13 is here designated as the lectotype (Figs 2, 8). The type locality was indicated as “ Murree, June 11th to July 14th, 1873 ”, referring to the NE Punjab in Pakistan, on the original description. Neither vials or the jars have a locality label.
Description. Female (jar # 1685, vial # 15). Total length 10. Carapace 5.5 long, 4.5 wide. Carapace pearshaped, cephalic part square-shaped; brownish, with a light median band, and dark radial stripes. Eyes in two rows. Eye sizes and interdistances: AME 0.2, ALE 0.35, PME 0.22, PLE 0.35; ALE‒PME 0.32, AME‒ALE 0.12, AME‒ AME 0.18, ALE‒PLE 0.42, AME‒PME 0.28, PME‒PME 0.12, PLE‒PME 0.5. Clypeus 0.25. Fovea distinct, longitudinal, 0.98 long. Sternum brown, with a lighter median part. Chelicerae dark brown, with 3 anterior and 4 posterior teeth. Palps and legs brown, without annulations. Tarsi of all legs and metatarsi I‒III with scopula. Scopula on metatarsi III occupies half of segment. Palp spination: Fe d4, p1, r1; Ti d1, p2; Ta d1, p3, r3. Leg measurements and spination in tables 1 and 2.
Abdomen oval, brown, with a yellow, lanceolate heart mark, venter uniformly brown.
Epigyne as in Figs 9‒19; epigynal plate wider than long; median plate (Mp) with a median furrow (Mf) and slit like copulatory openings (Co); copulatory openings spaced by 1.30 width. Endogyne with 2 pairs of receptacles, posterior (or proper: with the fertilization duct) receptacles (Pr) round, with large round gland antero-ventrally (Rg); anterior receptacles (Ar) cylindrical, with the globular head (Hr) covered with sparse glandular pores (Gp); anterior receptacles spaced out of each other by 1.3 time of their diameters; posterior receptacles separated by at least 2.25 times of their diameters (Figs 15‒17).
Variation. Body size varies 8 to 10.6 mm long, carapace 4.4‒5.8 long, 3.5‒4.8 wide. Sizes of the epigyne vary (cf. Figs 9 and 10), the relative distance between the anterior receptacles vary from 1.3 to 2 times of their diameters.
Male. Unknown.
Notes. The syntype series has 16 egg-cocoons, of which two contains eggs, and 14 first instar spiderlings. Cocoons are white, globular, with their diameter of 7.5‒8.5 mm. One cocoon was opened and contains over 200 spiderlings and egg shells. The egg cocoon is attached to the anterior spinnerets (Figs 2, 8). The bond between the cocoon and the spinnerets is so strong that three females collected and preserved almost 150 years ago still have their cocoons attached to the spinnerets (Fig. 2).
Distribution. The WSC (2018) indicates its distribution as China (Yarkand). Bonnet (1958) listed this species also from Yarkand, while Roewer (1955) listed it as a species from north-western India. In fact, this species was collected from the vicinity of Murree, which now lies in north-eastern Punjab (Pakistan) (Fig. 20).
description: Published as part of Marusik, Yuri M. & Nadolny, Anton A., 2018, Redescription of enigmatic spider genus Stoliczka O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885 (Araneae: Lycosoidea) based on the type species, pp. 295-300 in Zootaxa 4497 (2) on pages 296-298, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4497.2.9, http://zenodo.org/record/1452229