Monday, November 26, 2012

[Arachnology • 2012] Neoheterophrictus gen. nov. | A new genus of the family Theraphosidae (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) with description of three new species from the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India



Abstract
In this paper, a new genus Neoheterophrictus gen. nov., with three new species, Neoheterophrictus crurofulvus sp. nov., N. sahyadri sp. nov. and N. uttarakannada sp. nov., is described from Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka, India.  The new genus is close to Heterophrictus Pocock, 1900 and Plesiophrictus Pocock, 1899 but has multilobed spermathecae, which was consistent in all the three species and the males possessing double tibial spur.  Natural history information for all the species described is provided.  We transfer Plesiophrictus bhori Gravely, 1915 to Heterophrictus and synonymise P. mahabaleshwari Tikader, 1977 with Heterophrictus milleti Pocock, 1900.

Keywords: Eumernophorinae, Heterophrictus, new genus, new species, Plesiophrictus, tarantula, taxonomy, Theraphosidae.


Siliwal, M., N. Gupta and R. Raven. 2012. A New Genus of the Family Theraphosidae (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) with description of three new species from the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa. 4(14): 3233–3254
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:698FBB17-F014-4EA8-89C9-C5FF1AAA37A5