The Australasian-Pacific and South-East Asian species of the new orb-weaving spider genus Plebs with Plebs eburnus (Keyserling, 1886) as type species are revised. Following this study, Plebs includes a total of 22 species of which seven are here described new. Seven species are found in Australia, two in the Pacific region (New Caledonia, Vanuatu), and two in South-East Asia (Papua New Guinea, The Philippines). Eleven Asian species are transferred to the new genus. Plebs represent comparatively small orb-weaving spiders of c. 1.2-15.0 mm body length with a slightly elongated abdomen and humeral (shoulder) humps. Males of most species have two to three stout setae on the ventral side of their fourth coxae. Male pedipalps are characterized by the presence of a single macroseta on the patella, the presence of a paramedian apophysis as basal extension of the conductor, and an apical tegular protrusion. The female epigyne has a scape that is generally much longer than wide. It does not have a terminal pocket and is frequently broken off in a number of species. A phylogenetic analysis of 15 species of Plebs (those for which both sexes are known), 13 Australian/Pacific orb-weaving spider species representing the most commonly collected clades with paramedian apophysis, three species of Nearctic Eriophora Simon, 1864, and Araneus diadematus Clerck, 1758, as outgroup, identified a single synapomorphy of Plebs based on 35 morphological and three behavioural characters: a distinct, inverted U-shaped light pattern on the ventral side of the abdomen with two additional white spots anterolateral to the spinnerets. This analysis recovered a monophyletic clade of all Asian Plebs, suggesting a single colonization event of the genus that putatively originated in Australia. Most Plebs species appear to be active during the day. They build a regular orb-web with vertical stabilimentum in grass and low shrubs.
A new species of the jumping spider genus Stenaelurillus Simon, 1886, Stenaelurillus
albus
sp. n., is described from the Western Ghats of India, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Detailed morphological descriptions, diagnostic features and illustrations of copulatory organs of both sexes are given. Detailed redescription, diagnosis and illustration of Stenaelurillus
lesserti Reimoser, 1934 are provided. The occurrence of a mating plug in the genus is reported.
The spider genus Theridion was established by Walckenaer in 1805 with Theridion pictum (Walckenaer, 1802) as the type species. It is the most ‘species rich’ theridiid genus comprising 584 described species and 6 subspecies (World Spider Catalog 2015). Theridion zonulatum Thorell, 1890, ‘the zebra theridiid spider’, which is known only by the female, was described from Sumatra. Gao & Li (2014) described Theridion echinatum from the Yunnan Province in China based only on male specimens. During our surveys of Indian spiders, we came across a matching-pair of male and female theridiid spiders from the Kerala region in India. Our female spiders appeared to belong to T. zonulatum, while male spiders shared the features of T. echinatum. This led us to the conclusion that both T. zonulatum and T. echinatum are conspecific. In the present paper, we synonymise T. echinatum with T. zonulatum. The web architecture of T. zonulatum is also described.
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