On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)

ABSTRACT

Indian Phaeocedus species are revised based on the type material deposited in the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford. Phaeocedus poonaensis syn. nov. is synonymised with Poecilochroa taborensis and Phaeocedus nicobarensis syn. nov. is synonymised with Pandava laminata (Titanoecidae). Two new combinations are proposed: Drassodes haribhaiius comb. nov. and Synaphosus parvus comb. nov.. In addition, Phaeocedus mosambaensis syn. nov. described from Nepal is synonymised with Drassodes lutescens. All the type material examined are imaged and supplementary descriptions for D. haribhaiius comb. nov., D. lutescens and P. taborensis are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• synonymy
• taxonomy
• transfer
• type material
• Zoological Survey of India

View addendum:

Correction to the article ‘On the taxonomic validity of Indian ground spiders: III. Genus Phaeocedus Simon, 1893 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)’

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Rev. Fr. Prasanth Palackappillil CMI, Principal, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin for providing all facilities for completing this work. We thank Dr Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for giving access to the Arachnid collection of ZSI, Shri. K. C. Gopi, former Additional Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata and Dr Shelley Acharya, Officer-in-Charge, Arachnida Section for their support and to Mr Chandan Bera for his curatorial assistance. We thank Zoë Simmons, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford for providing the images of Phaeocedus parvus type. We extend our heartfelt thanks to an anonymous reviewer for the constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and to Dr Andrew Polaszek, Natural History Museum, London for his editorial efforts. The first and third authors especially acknowledge the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)-DST, New Delhi for providing funding support under the Major Research Project No. EMR/2015/002518.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)-DST, New Delhi under the Major Research Project No. EMR/2015/002518.