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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2015-01-06
Page range: 293–297
Abstract views: 61
PDF downloaded: 2

First record of the wolf spider genus Lysania Thorell, 1890 from India with the description of a new species (Araneae: Lycosidae: Zoicinae) 

Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India
Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India
Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India
Division of Arachnology, Department of Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin, Kerala 682 013, India
Araneae Lycosidae Zoicinae

Abstract

The lycosid spider genus Lysania Thorell, 1890 contains just three species found in Borneo, China and Malaysia (World Spider Catalog 2014), which build small, horizontal, sheet-like webs (Lehtinen & Hippa 1979; Li et al. 2013). Members of the genus are characterised by having a male pedipalp without an articulated median apophysis, a beak-like lateral apophysis and wider conductor and female genitalia with a central/median hairy plate and long copulatory ducts (Lehtinen & Hippa 1979; Li et al. 2013). Lysania deangia Li, Wang and Zhang (described from China) and L. pygmaea Thorell, 1890 (described from China and Malaysia) are known from both males and females, while L. sabahensis Lehtinen and Hippa, 1979 (described from Borneo) is known only from females (World Spider Catalog 2014). Here we provide the description and illustration of a new Lysania species from the Western Ghats, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world (Myers et al. 2000), in the Kerala region of southern India.