Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2026-06-26
Page range: 121-138
Abstract views: 73
PDF downloaded: 3

Taxonomic notes on species of the genera Agelena Walckenaer, 1805, Tamgrinia Lehtinen, 1967 and Tegenaria Latreille, 1804 from India, with remarks on an allied species from Nepal (Araneae: Agelenidae)

Zoological Survey of India; Prani Vigyan Bhawan; M-Block; New Alipore; Kolkata; West Bengal 700 053; India
Division of Arachnology; Department of Zoology; Sacred Heart College; Thevara; Cochin; Kerala 682 013; India
Zoological Survey of India; Prani Vigyan Bhawan; M-Block; New Alipore; Kolkata; West Bengal 700 053; India
Araneae description new combination new synonym species inquirendae taxonomy type material

Abstract

The species belonging to Agelena Walckenaer, 1805, Tamgrinia Lehtinen, 1967 and Tegenaria Latreille, 1804 described or recorded from India are reviewed. The following new synonymies are recognised: Agelena shillongensis Tikader, 1969 syn. nov. with Tegenaria domestica (Clerck, 1757), and Tegenaria comstocki Gajbe, 2004 syn. nov. with the titanoecid species Pandava laminata (Thorell, 1878). The synonymy of the Indian species Tegenaria chhanguensis Tikader, 1970 with the Chinese species Tamgrinia alveolifera (Schenkel, 1936) as proposed by Hu (2001), is confirmed based on an examination of the type specimen of the former one. The species Agelena satmila Tikader, 1970, Tegenaria hemanginiae Reddy & Patel, 1992, and T. shillongensis Barman, 1979 are considered species inquirendae. The Nepalese agelenid species Tegenaria lunakensis Tikader, 1964 is transferred to Draconarius Ovtchinnikov, 1999: D. lunakensis (Tikader, 1964) comb. nov. Photographs of all the examined type material, and supplementary descriptions for Agelena barunae Tikader, 1970, A. gautami Tikader, 1962, A. satmila, and D. lunakensis comb. nov. are provided.

References

  1. Almeida-Silva, L.M., Griswold, C.E. & Brescovit, A.D. (2010) Revision of the Asian spider genus Pandava Lehtinen (Araneae: Titanoecidae): description of five new species and first record of Titanoecidae from Africa. Zootaxa, 2630, 30–56. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2630.1.2
  2. Barman, M. (1979) Studies on some spiders of the genera Tegenaria and Agelena from Khasi and Jaintia hills, India (Araneae: Agelenidae). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 75, 454–457.
  3. Bolzern, A., Burckhardt, D. & Hänggi, A. (2013) Phylogeny and taxonomy of European funnel-web spiders of the Tegenaria-Malthonica complex (Araneae: Agelenidae) based upon morphological and molecular data. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 168 (4), 723–848. https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12040
  4. Brignoli, P.M. (1976) Spinnen aus Nepal, III. Über einige Spinnen aus dem Himalaya, dazu Revision einiger Arten aus dem Karakorum (Arachnida, Araneae). Ergebnisse des Forschungsunternehmens Nepal Himalaya, 5, 229–253.
  5. Brignoli, P.M. (1982) On a few spiders from China (Araneae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society, 5 (8), 344–351.
  6. Caleb, J.T.D. & Sankaran, P.M. (2026) Araneae of India. Version 2026. Available from: http://www.indianspiders.in (accessed 12 May 2026)
  7. Clerck, C. (1757) Aranei Svecici. Svenska spindlar, uti sina hufvud-slågter indelte samt under några och sextio särskildte arter beskrefne och med illuminerade figurer uplyste. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholmiae [= Stockholm], 154 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.119890
  8. Dhali, D.C., Saha, S. & Raychaudhuri, D. (2017) Litter and ground dwelling spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) of reserve forests of Dooars, West Bengal. World Scientific News, 63, 1–242.
  9. Fabricius, J.C. (1775) Systema entomologiae, sistens insectorum classes, ordines, genera, species, adiectis, synonymis, locis descriptionibus observationibus. Libraria Kortii, Flensbvrgi et Lipsiae [= Kortensche Buchhandlung, Flensburg & Leipzig], 832 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.36510
  10. Fabricius, J.C. (1781) Species insectorum exhibentes eorum differentias specificas, synonyma auctorum, loca natalia, metamorphos in adiectis observationibus, descriptionibus. Carol. Ernest. Bohnii, Hamburgi et Kiloni [Hamburg and Kiel], 1, 552 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.11658
  11. Gajbe, P.U. (2004) Spiders of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (Arachnida: Araneae). Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper, 227, 1–154.
  12. Hu, J.L. (2001) Spiders in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. Henan Science and Technology Publishing House, 658 pp.
  13. Hu, J.L. & Li, A.H. (1987) The spiders collected from the fields and the forests of Xizang Autonomous Region, China. (II). Agricultural Insects, Spiders, Plant Diseases and Weeds of Xizang, 2, 247–353.
  14. Lehtinen, P.T. (1967) Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families, with notes on the evolution of the suborder Araneomorpha. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 4, 199–468.
  15. Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species cum characteribus differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius, Holmiae [= Stockholm], 821 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.542
  16. Martyn, T. (1793) Aranei, or a natural history of spiders, including the principal parts of the well known work on English spiders by Eleazar Albin, as also the whole of the celebrated publication on Swedish spiders by Charles Clerk. Tomkins & Vincent, London, 70 pp., pls. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.119889
  17. Marusik, Y.M. (2025) On the authorship of Tegenariini and Scytodidae (Aranei: Agelenidae, Scytodidae). Arthropoda Selecta, 34 (3), 408–409. https://doi.org/10.15298/arthsel.34.3.12
  18. Marusik, Y.M. & Koponen, S. (2000) New data on spiders (Aranei) from the Maritime Province, Russian Far East. Arthropoda Selecta, 9 (1), 55–68.
  19. Olivier, G.A. (1789) Araignée, Aranea. In: Encyclopédie Méthodique, Histoire Naturelle, Insectes. Tome quatrième. Panckoucke, Paris, pp. 173–240. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.82248
  20. Paquin, P., Vink, C. & Dupérré, N. (2010) Spiders of New Zealand: annotated family key & species list. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, New Zealand, 118 pp.
  21. Quasin, S., Sarkar, I.D., Siliwal, M. & Uniyal, V.P. (2022) First reports of two cribellate spiders from India (Araneae: Agelenidae, Titanoecidae). Munis Entomology and Zoology, 17, 1761–1767.
  22. Reddy, T.S. & Patel, B.H. (1992) A rare new Tegenaria Latreille spider (Araneae: Agelenidae) from coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. Entomon, 17, 125–127.
  23. Schenkel, E. (1936) Schwedisch-chinesische wissenschaftliche Expedition nach den nordwestlichen Provinzen Chinas, unter Leitung von Dr. Sven Hedin und Prof. Sü Ping-chang. Araneae gesammelt vom schwedischen Arzt der Expedition Dr. David Hummel 1927–1930. Arkiv för Zoologi, 29 (A1), 1–314.
  24. Simon, E. (1893) Voyage de M.E. Simon aux îles Philippines (mars et avril 1890). 6e Mémoire. Arachnides. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 62, 65–80.
  25. Song, D.X. (1987) Spiders from agricultural regions of China (Arachnida: Araneae). Agriculture Publishing House, Beijing, 376 pp.
  26. Song, D.X., Zhu, M.S. & Chen, J. (1999) The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang, 640 pp.
  27. Strand, E. (1907) Süd- und ostasiatische Spinnen. Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Görlitz, 25, 107–215.
  28. Thorell, T. (1878) Studi sui ragni Malesi e Papuani. II. Ragni di Amboina raccolti Prof. O. Beccari. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, 13, 5–317.
  29. Thorell, T. (1895) Descriptive catalogue of the spiders of Burma, based upon the collection made by Eugene W. Oates and preserved in the British Museum. London, 406 pp. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.17492
  30. Thorell, T. (1897) Viaggio di Leonardo Fea in Birmania e regioni vicine. LXXIII. Secondo saggio sui Ragni birmani. I. Parallelodontes. Tubitelariae. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, 37, 161–267. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.8730
  31. Tikader, B.K. (1962) Studies on some Indian spiders (Araneae: Arachnida). Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, 44 (300), 561–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1962.tb01624.x
  32. Tikader, B.K. (1964) Zoological results of the Indian Cho-Oyu Expedition (1958) in Nepal. Part 8. – Arachnida. Records of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 59, 257–267.
  33. Tikader, B.K. (1969) Studies on spider fauna of Khasi and Jaintia hills, Assam, India. Part III. Journal of the Assam Science Society, 11, 154–163.
  34. Tikader, B.K. (1970) Spider fauna of Sikkim. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, 64, 1–83.
  35. Tikader, B.K. (1977) Studies on spider fauna of Andaman and Nicobar islands, Indian Ocean. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, 72, 153–212. https://doi.org/10.26515/rzsi/v72/i1-4/1977/161929
  36. Wang, J.F. (1991) Six new species of the genus Agelena from China (Araneae: Agelenidae). Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica, 16 (4), 407–416.
  37. Wang, X.P. (2000) A revision of the genus Tamgrinia (Araneae: Amaurobiidae), with notes on amaurobiid spinnerets, tracheae and trichobothria. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 14 (4), 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1071/IT99001
  38. Wang, X.P. & Martens, J. (2009) Revision of coelotine spiders from Nepal (Araneae: Amaurobiidae). Invertebrate Systematics, 23 (5), 452–505. https://doi.org/10.1071/is09009
  39. World Spider Catalog. (2026) World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern. Available from: http://wsc.nmbe.ch, version 26.0 (accessed 12 May 2026) https://doi.org/10.24436/2
  40. Yin, C.M., Peng, X.J., Yan, H.M., Bao, Y.H., Xu, X., Tang, G., Zhou, Q.S. & Liu, P. (2012) Fauna Hunan: Araneae in Hunan, China. Hunan Science and Technology Press, Changsha, 1590 pp.
  41. Zehbi, N. & Yousuf, M. (2023) Household spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Kashmir Himalayas with three new records from India. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 16 (3), 413–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japb.2023.06.004
  42. Zhang, X.F., Li, S.Q. & Gao, J.C. (2007) Restudy on the type specimens of Agelena scopulata Wang, 1991 (Araneae: Agelenidae). Acta Arachnologica Sinica, 16, 12–13.
  43. Zhang, Z.S., Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2005) On Agelena labyrinthica (Clerck, 1757) and some allied species, with descriptions of two new species of the genus Agelena from China (Araneae: Agelenidae). Zootaxa, 1021, 45–63. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1021.1.5
  44. Zhang, Z.S., Zhu, M.S. & Song, D.X. (2006) A new genus of funnel-web spiders, with notes on relationships of the five genera from China (Araneae: Agelenidae). Oriental Insects, 40, 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/00305316.2006.10417458
  45. Zhu, M.S., Wang, X.P. & Zhang, Z.S. (2017) Fauna Sinica: Invertebrata Vol. 59: Arachnida: Araneae: Agelenidae and Amaurobiidae. Science Press, Beijing, 727 pp.

How to Cite

Sudhin, P.P., Sankaran, P.M. & Sen, S. (2026) Taxonomic notes on species of the genera Agelena Walckenaer, 1805, Tamgrinia Lehtinen, 1967 and Tegenaria Latreille, 1804 from India, with remarks on an allied species from Nepal (Araneae: Agelenidae). Zootaxa, 5839 (1), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5839.1.5