Taxonomic notes on the crab spider genus Tobias Simon, 1895 (Araneae, Thomisidae, Stephanopinae)

Abstract

The males of Tobias caudatus Mello-Leitão, 1929 and Tobias pustulosus Simon, 1929 are described for the first time, females are redescribed and both sexes are illustrated. New distribution records are presented for both species. Tobias monstruosus Mello-Leitão, 1929 is considered a junior synonym of T. pustulosus. The types of Tobias albovittatus Caporiacco, 1954, and Tobias gradiens Mello-Leitão, 1929 are lost, and Tobias albicans Mello-Leitão, 1929 and Tobias corticatus Mello-Leitão, 1917 are known only from poorly preserved specimens, thus they all are considered nomina dubia.

First record of Epicadus trituberculatus (Taczanowski, 1872) (Araneae, Thomisidae, Stephanopinae) in the Brazilian Northeast

“…In the Northeast Region of Brazil there are other species of Epicadus-E. caudatus (Mello-Leitão, 1929), E. heterogaster (Mello-Leitão, 1929), E. pulcher (Mello-Leitão, 1929), E. rubripes Mello-Leitão, 1924, andE. taczanowskii (Roewer, 1951)-but they have only been recorded for the state of Bahia (Machado et al 2015;Silva-Moreira and Machado 2016). The new record presented here suggests that the ecosystems in northeastern Brazil are poorly studied and probably harbor more species of spiders that are unrecorded or undescribed.…”

A taxonomic review of the crab spider genus Sidymella (Araneae, Thomisidae) in the Neotropics

“…The presence of cheliceral teeth, which was previously considered as a synapomorphy for this group (Ono 1988), was recovered as a plesiomorphy by Benjamin (2011), and this subfamily remains as the most controversial and the least studied group in Thomisidae; it has many genera in need of revision and a considerable number of species yet to be described (Benjamin 2011). Based on the work of Mello-Leitão (1929), subsequent efforts were made to update the taxonomy of some Neotropical stephanopines (Lise , 1981Bonaldo and Lise 2001;Machado et al 2015Machado et al , 2017Silva-Moreira and Machado 2016;Prado et al 2018). However, many genera are still known only from the original descriptions and poor diagnoses, and the accurate identification of many species is practically impossible.…”

Kryptochroma: a new genus of bark-dwelling crab spiders (Araneae, Thomisidae)

“…The morphological aspects and taxonomic boundaries of Neotropical stephanopines have been extensively studied during the past years (Machado et al 2015(Machado et al , 2018(Machado et al , 2019aSilva-Moreira & Machado 2016). Meanwhile, phylogenies based on morphological and molecular data were congruent in recovering some close related genera, corroborating classic propositions for the possible existence of tribes or even certain "groups" in this subfamily (Benjamin 2011;Benjamin et al 2008;Wheeler et al 2017;Machado et al 2017Machado et al , 2019bMachado & Teixeira 2021).…”