New locality data for Stegodyphus tibialis ( O . Pickard-Cambridge , 1869 ) ( Araneae : Eresidae ) from Telangana state , India

We present the first record of the velvet spider Stegodyphus tibialis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) from Telangana state, India. A male specimen of this species was collected from Osmania University campus, Hyderabad. We describe the male and provide a map of the global range of the species.

The cribellate spider family Eresidae C.L. Koch, 1845, commonly known as "velvet spiders", is represented globally by 97 species within nine genera.In India, eresids are known by six species of Stegodyphus Simon, 1873.Members of Stegodyphus are gregarious in habit, leading a communal or social life, hence the common name "social spiders".Compact nests with entrance and exit holes are built by a number of individuals.The nest is sticky in nature to trap wandering insects, which are dragged into the nest by the members of the colony and fed on.A peculiar behavior, known as matriphagy (suicidal maternal care) has been observed in members of this family, including S. lineatus (Latreille, 1817) (Salomon et al. 2015).
The specimen was collected by hand, photographed in live (Figure 1) and later preserved in 90% ethanol.One of the palpi was separated, cleared in 50% NaOH solution (30 minutes), examined under Olympus U-CTR30-2 trinocular microscope and photographed by camera mount using Olympus live view DSLR E-420 camera.Measurements are in mm, taken by Mitutoyo vernier calipers.The distribution map (Figure 2) was prepared using Arc-GIS (ver.10.2).
The specimen was deposited in the Osmania University Natural History Museum (OUNHM), Museum collection of the Department of Zoology, Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Stegodyphus tibialis (O.Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) Figure 1 For a complete list of synonymies, see World Spider Catalog (2016).The species is distinguished from the members of mirandus group by the presence of very thick, fusiform hairs on the tibia of leg I.
A description of the male is as follows: Small-sized eresid (Table 1).Carapace reddish black, with short Distribution: India: Mysore (type locality), Karnataka (1♂) (Pickard and Cambridge 1869); Pune, Maharashtra (2♀) (Kraus and Kraus 1989); Lal Bagh, Bangalore, Karnataka (1♀, holotype of S. socialis) (Pocock 1900); Jalarpet, Madras, Tamil Nadu (1♀) (Kraus and Kraus 1989); Tambaram scrub jungles, Tamil Nadu (9♂, 32♀) (Phanuel, 1963); Coonoor, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu (1♀) (Kraus and Kraus 1989); Ayyanar Tamil Nadu (1♀) (Kraus and Kraus 1989) The genus Stegodyphus is divided into three species groups -africanus, dufouri and mirandus.They are primarily defined by different character expressions in the male and female genitalia.Stegodyphus tibialis belongs to the mirandus group.This group is characterized by: the males with the bulb having a heavily sclerotized terminal element and at least the terminal apparatus with a separate and conspicuous sclerotized lamella or clawlike hook; the females with the epigynum and vulva in most species in an oblique or even vertical position.This feature of epigynum positioning is less extreme in S.   1989) (Figure 1).Stegodyphus tibialis was described as Eresus tibialis, on the basis of a single adult male specimen collected from Mysore, India (Pickard-Cambridge 1869).The species was subsequently recorded from Burma (now Myanmar) and transferred to the genus Stegodyphus by Simon (1884) on the basis of reddish brown cephalothorax, elongated carapace, eyes arranged in three rows, and notched chelicerae.Pocock (1900) described S. socialis based on female specimens.The first description of the female of S. tibialis was by Phanuel (1963) and subsequent comparison of the females of S. socialis and S. tibialis by Kraus and Kraus (1989) led to the synonymizing of the nomen S. socialis Pocock, 1900 with S. tibialis.Besides India, S. tibialis has also been reported from northwest Thailand (Ono 1995) and China (Yang and Hu 2002;Yang et al. 2008) (Figure 2).In India, this species has been recorded from Karnataka (Mysore, Bangalore), Maharashtra (Poona) and Tamilnadu (Ayyanar Falls, Coonor, Jalarpet and Tambaram) (Kraus and Kraus 1989).This report from Telangana State extends the range of the species into central peninsular India (Figure 2).
The species has been poorly studied since its description.Its distribution pattern (Figure 2) shows the prevalence of species in South and Southeast Asia (India, Myanmar, Thailand and South China).It is possible that this species occurs elsewhere in the Oriental region.There have not been any specimen based reports from India since Phanuel (1963) until Siliwal et al. (2003) reported a single female from Purna Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat.

Table 1 .
Body measurements of adult male Stegodyphus tibialis (O.Pickard-Gunti et al. | First report of Stegodyphus tibialis from Telangana, Indiayellow hairs on the lateral sides as a thin line.Clypeus raised to a height of 0.74mm, chelicerae black and with yellow hairs at the base.Sternum narrow with a line of yellow hairs centrally.Legs reddish black with a line of yellow hairs running centrally from femur to tibia; leg formula 1423.Abdomen with two bands of yellow hairs, anteriorly and posteriorly, centrally with black hairs.Abdomen dorsally with 5 sigillae; ventrally black; cribellum with yellow hairs.Palpal organ with terminal apparatus guiding the embolus, forming one single stout element with heavily sclerotized region.One irregular oval fold shows a coarse surface structure consisting of ridges and scales.Terminal part of embolus conducted by a fold of a bill-like construction(Kraus and Kraus