Plator pandeae Tikader, 1969

Figs 10–24

Plator pandeae Tikader, 1969: 253, figs 4–7 (Description and illustration of female).— Hu & Li, 1987: 360, figs 30.1–4, 31.1–4 (Description and illustration of male and female).— Hu, 2001: 279, fig. 160.1–4 (Illustration of male and female).— Zhu et al., 2006: 42, figs 20–24 (Description and illustration of male and female).

Type material. Holotype female from INDIA: Uttarakhand: Nainital (formerly in Uttar Pradesh) (29°23’30.93’’N, 79°27’15.15’’E), 1967 m alt.; S. Pande leg.; 1 June 1968; repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (no register number specified), examined. Paratype 3 females with same data as holotype, examined.

Additional material examined. INDIA, Himachal Pradesh: Dalhousie, Bakrota Hills (32°32’12.5’’N, 75°59’02.7’’E), 2133 m alt. (7000 ft), 6 July 1927, S.L. Hora leg., repository NZC-ZSI, Kolkata (3791/18): 1 female in fairly good condition, with broken legs and intact genitalia.

Type material status. The ZSI collection has three glass tubes for P. pandeae. First tube labeled as ‘holotype’ (3828/18) contains one female specimen in fairly good condition, with broken legs and intact genitalia. The second tube labeled as ‘paratype’ (3829/18) contains, instead of three, two immature specimens in fairly good condition, with broken legs. Third tube without proper labeling as paratype or allotype (3365/18) contains two male, seven female and two immature specimens, (the label mentions ‘only two males and seven females’), all in fairly good condition, with broken legs. The same tube has a small glass vial contains the left pedipalp of one of the males. The label mentions that all the specimens in this tube were collected together with the holotype and paratypes by S. Pande.

Diagnosis. Males of P. pandeae can be easily distinguished from the males of all known congeners by long, stout, apically bifurcated embolus and females by narrow, M-shaped anterior epigynal margin and piriform epigynal plate with posterior crescent-shaped contiguous shadows of vulvae (Figs 14, 19–20, 23).

Supplementary description. Male (allotype, Fig. 12). Colour in alcohol: carapace, eye region, clypeus, chelicerae, fangs, endites, labium, sternum, legs, pedipalp pale brownish; opisthosoma greyish with scattered pale black striae and blotches. Fovea obsolete. Body length 6.19. Carapace length 2.45, width 3.88. Opisthosoma length 3.74, width 4.53. Eye diameters: ALE 0.14. AME 0.15. PLE 0.20. PME 0.09. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.06. ALE–PLE 0.23. AME–AME 0.07. AME–PME 0.14. PME–PLE 0.21. PME–PME 0.25. Chelicerae length 0.56. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.06, at AMEs 0.05. Measurements of pedipalp (right): 2.73 [0.87, 0.52, 0.54, 0.80]. Pedipalp as in Figs 22–24.

Female (holotype, Figs 10, 13). Like male except the following: body length 8.39. Carapace length 3.27, width 5.00. Opisthosoma length 5.12, width 5.72. Eye diameters: ALE 0.14. AME 0.15. PLE 0.21. PME 0.12. Eye interdistances: ALE–AME 0.13. ALE–PLE 0.26. AME–AME 0.07. AME–PME 0.18. PME–PLE 0.29. PME–PME 0.27. Chelicerae length 0.67. Clypeus height at ALEs 0.09, at AMEs 0.09. Measurements of palp and legs (all right). Palp 2.52 [0.75, 0.55, 0.45, 0.77], I 11.51 [4.03, 1.70, 2.59, 2.09, 1.10], II 16.31 [5.40, 2.03, 4.20, 3.32, 1.36], III 16.42 [5.63, 1.97, 4.11, 3.46, 1.25], IV 13.20 [4.46, 1.57, 3.41, 2.79, 0.97]. Leg formula: 3241. Epigynum as in Fig. 14.

Paratype female. Measurements: body length 8.03. Carapace length 2.83, width 4.45. Opisthosoma length 5.20, width 3.87. Genitalia as in Figs 20–21.

Note. The illustrations given by Hu and Li (1987: fig. 31.1–4) match with the genitalic details of the type materials of P. pandeae (Figs 14, 23–24). According to Platnick (1976), this species may be a junior synonym of P. ixodinus. Since we could not examine the type of P. ixodinus, we are unable to confirm it (see also note under P. indicus).