First record of Epidius parvati Benjamin , 2000 ( Araneae : Thomisidae ) from Pathiramanal Island , India

The thomisid spider Epidius parvati  Benjamin, 2000, described from Sri Lanka, is newly recorded from India based on the specimens collected from the Pathiramanal Island, Alappuzha District, Kerala State. A short description and illustrations of both male and female are provided.

For detailed description and illustrations, see Benjamin (2000).
Description.Male.Live specimen greenish yellow with dorsal folium on the abdomen.No tubercles around eyes.Cheliceral promargin with some fringe of hairs and 3 teeth, retromargin with 2 teeth.Leg formula 1243.Legs with welldeveloped spines and elongated femur and tibia.Proximal margin of tibia with conspicuous strong ventral bristles.Palpal femur, patella and tibia elongated, tibia with 2 or 3 strong spines.Cymbium longer than wide with hairs and a fine setae apically.Ventral tibial apophysis present but not clearly visible.Conductor massive, sickle shaped and apically pointed.Tutaculum absent.Embolus long, strong, sharp and bifurcated in close observation.Bulbus ovoid.Sperm duct long.
Female.Live specimen greenish yellow in colour.Abdomen oval with white spots.Leg formula 1243.Legs reddish brown with fine spines, especially long and strong ones on the venter of the tibiae, metatarsi and tarsi of legs I and II.Tibia of pedipalp with long macrosetae, tarsus densely covered with short hairs.Epigynum with highly sclerotized margin.SP globular.FD long, close to spermatheca, retrolaterally oriented.CD short, upper portion highly sclerotized and upper lip of copulatory opening extends anteriorly.
Diagnosis.Epidius parvati is most similar to E. longipalpis but differs by the following combination of characters (Figure 2): (1) the sickle shaped, massive and pointed conductor (in E. longipalpis, the tip of the conductor wide and rounded); (2) the embolus is bifurcated, strong and sharp when compared to the simple embolus in E. longipalpis; (3) the length and shape of the tegular apophysisis also diagnostic in E. parvati (Badcock 1918;Benjamin 2000).
Ecology.Thomisid spiders are best known for their camouflage (Oxford & Gillespie 1998).Live, adult specimens of the genus Epidius are yellowish green in colour and are mostly seen inside folded green leaves, indicating camouflage (Figure 2).
The spider genus Epidius is a small, lesser-studied genus of Old World spiders (Benjamin 2000).Although the Epidius fauna of the Indian subcontinent was studied for many this little-known crab spider species, its known geographical distribution is here extended north by 486 km to India from the west coast of Sri Lanka (Figure 3).We observed that the habitat on Pathiramanal Island for this species is highly disturbed by excessive visitation by tourists and by the grazing of livestock.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our sincere thanks to Rev. Fr.Prasanth Palackappillil (Principal, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin) for years (Thorell 1877;Tikader 1971), and most recently by Benjamin (2017), the presence of E. parvati in India has been overlooked until now.
Epidius parvati was only known from the type locality at the Bellanwila Attidiya marshes, Colombo, Sri Lanka (Benjamin 2017).The new record of E. parvati from Pathiramanal Island suggests that this species may also occur in other areas of India (and the Indo-Sri Lankan biodiversity hotspot region), such as the Lakshadweep, Andaman, and Nicobar islands, the Gulf of Kutch, and at Ratnagiri due to the presence of similar habitats.With our new record of