Chrysilla volupe (Karsch, 1879)

World Spider Catalog: urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:035559

Attus volupe Karsch, 1879 - Karsch 1879: 552 (m) Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Chrysilla sp. - Prószyński 1984: 19 (m) Bhutan (according to Żabka 1988: 465).

Siler semiglaucus (Simon, 1901) - Prószyński 1985: 73, figs 16-17 (f, misidentified according to Caleb et al. 2018: 144) Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Phintella volupe (Karsch, 1879) - Żabka 1988: 465, figs 122-125 (m); Caleb and Mathai 2014: 64, figs 15-23 (m) India.

Chrysilla volupe (Karsch, 1879) - Caleb 2016: 271, India; Thumar and Dholakia 2018: 2, figs 1-6 (m) India; Caleb et al. 2018: 144, figs 1-25 (mf) India; Kanesharatnam and Benjamin 2019: 49, figs 20 C-F, 21 A-E, 22 A-D (mf) Sri Lanka; Magar et al. 2020: 4, figs 4-6 (mf) Nepal.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MMUE 7572.6434; recordNumber: CM 15916; recordedBy: F. & J. A. Murphy; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; otherCatalogNumbers: https://doi.org/10.3535/67X-9R9-YCM; occurrenceID: 01C98BCA-9D5C-5E2A-B63A-6417E1E0562B; Taxon: scientificName: Chrysilla volupe; Location: country: Sri Lanka; locality: Peradeniya, Leersia; verbatimElevation: 500 m; verbatimCoordinates: 7 ° 16 ’ 01 ” N 80 ° 35 ' 44 ” E; decimalLatitude: 7.2669444444444; decimalLongitude: 80.595555555556; Event: eventDate: 1986-11 - 25; Record Level: institutionID: https://ror.org/027m9bs27; institutionCode: MMUE; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: RMNH. ARA. 18249; recordedBy: P. R. & C. L. Deeleman; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; otherCatalogNumbers: https://doi.org/10.3535/6H9-R1R-330; occurrenceID: 1F561749-E7FA-5747-AA7A-FF9401CC24C8; Taxon: scientificName: Chrysilla volupe; Location: country: Sri Lanka; locality: Kataragama Peak (Tissamaharama); verbatimCoordinates: 6 ° 23 ’ 35 ” N 81 ° 20 ’ 17 ” E; decimalLatitude: 26.393055555556; decimalLongitude: 81.338055555556; Event: eventDate: 1981-08 - 18; habitat: dry bush litter; Record Level: institutionID: https://ror.org/0566bfb96; institutionCode: RMNH; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: RMNH. ARA. 18259; recordedBy: P. R. & C. L. Deeleman; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; otherCatalogNumbers: https://doi.org/10.3535/WL8-0R1-42B; occurrenceID: C37E9FA4-7FA4-59B4-BF7A-7F5A705DC44B; Taxon: scientificName: Chrysilla volupe; Location: country: Sri Lanka; locality: Kataragama Peak (Tissamaharama); verbatimCoordinates: 6 ° 23 ’ 35 ” N 81 ° 20 ’ 17 ” E; decimalLatitude: 26.393055555556; decimalLongitude: 81.338055555556; Event: eventDate: 1981-08 - 18; habitat: dry bush litter; Record Level: institutionID: https://ror.org/0566bfb96; institutionCode: RMNH; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Additions to the description of the male (Leersia). Abdomen in alcohol with middle band slightly paler than lateral areas, as in lauta ornamented with some gold reflecting scales and anteriorly areas with black setae; venter as in lauta. All legs dark, tarsi mostly light. Male palp (Fig. 7): femur, patella and tibia and basal half of cymbium brown (blue in life), distal half of cymbium white. Measurements. Body length 3.40 (smaller then described specimens from India), carapace length 1.40, width 1.00, height 0.60. Abdomen length 2.00 width 0.55. Palp femur 0.60, patella 0.20, tibia 0.15, cymbium length 0, 60, width 0.20. Chelicerae not diverging. Leg I 3.70 (1.10 [width 0.35] – 0.40 – 0.80 - 1.10 – 0.30), legs II lost, leg III 2.60 (0.70 – 0.40 - 0.50 – 0.60 – 0.40), leg IV 3.30 (1.00 - 0.30 – 0.70 – 0.90 – 0.40).

Female (Tissamaharama). No abdominal pattern distinguishable in preserved specimen (Fig. 8 c; Kanesharatnam and Benjamin 2019: fig 22 A). Live animals with mottled black, red, and iridescent blue (Kanesharatnam and Benjamin 2019: fig 22 A; Caleb et al. 2018: figs 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). Copulatory ducts longer than in C. lauta, length 1 ½ x diameter of spermatheca, in anterior half running adjacent and parallel to each other (Kanesharatnam and Benjamin 2019: fig. 20 E, F); in C. lauta ducts length not much more than 1 diameter of spermathecae and curved over whole length (Fig. 4 b, c, d).

Diagnosis

This species is similar to C. lauta. The carapace as in C. lauta, the dorsal abdomen pattern is distinctive, in life with an anterior iridescent green band followed by a wide M-shaped band in red, behind which another red band with green in between, distally an iridescent black / violet tail (Fig. 2, Caleb et al. 2018: figs 1-12); this pattern may be preserved or lost in alcohol. Male palp with several features that can be used for identification. In C. volupe (Fig. 7), the palpal tibia and basal part of cymbium are darkish, (blue in life), white in C. lauta; the dorsal margin of rta is more slender and smoothly curved, in C. lauta it is somewhat wider and dorsally slightly undulating. This latter key character agrees with drawings of a palp of the type specimen of C. volupe from Sri Lanka by Żabka 1988 (figs 122, 124), but not when comparing with Prószyński's palp drawing of “ Chrysilla ” sp. from Bhutan (Prószyński 1984: 19), which was interpreted as this species by Żabka 1988: 466). In female C. lauta all legs are uniform pale, in female C. volupe legs are pale with a few black rings on leg IV.

Distribution

Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, Nepal. Caleb and Mathai 2014 (p. 64) erroneously cite Burma among the distribution records (Caleb et al. 2018). In addition, the online biodiversity monitoring community iNaturalist. org has research grade records from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Ecology

Foliage and dry leaf litter.

Biology

Male C. volupe spiders have been seen moving their palps up and down continuously and waving their long thin abdomen in circles up in the air, exhibiting large white light-reflecting spots.