Plator nipponicus

Plator nipponicus (Kishida, 1914) (Figs 6–7, 9 A–B)

Hitoegumoa nipponica Kishida, 1914: 44, fig. 1.

Plator sinicus Zhu & Wang, 1963: 469, pl. 3, figs 20, 22; Zhu et al., 2006: 37, figs 8–13, 40–42. syn. nov.

Material examined. 2♀, China, Liaoning Province, Dalian City, Pulandian District, Gaowafang Village, 07 October 2016, Yejie Lin leg.; 1♂ 17♀, China, Shaanxi Province, Shangluo City, Shangzhou, 30 March 2015, Keyuan Ma leg.; 1♀, Japan, Osaka Pref., Osaka-shi, Minami-ku, Tanimachi, 9 March 1958, H. Takashima & J. Yoshida leg.; 1♂, Japan, Osaka Pref., Osaka-shi, Higashiyodogawa-ku, Nishinakajima-cho, 11 February 1960, I. Sawatani leg.

Diagnosis. See Zhu et al. (2006).

Description. See Kishida (1914).

Distribution. China, Korea, Japan.

Comments. Plator sinicus Zhu & Wang, 1963 was based on a holotype female from Liaoning, China. The type, deposited in the Norman Bethune University of Medical Science at Changchun, China, is now lost. Two females from Liaoning, China were studied in the current work and were found to match the original description. Zhu et al. (2006) indicated that P. sinicus can be distinguished from P. nipponicus by having a hump near the middle of the sub-tegulum, a beak-shaped embolus, and the absence of a median fork in the male palp, and the female having spermathecae with spermathecal heads. When we examined the named specimens of P. nipponicus from Japan, their characters were the same as those of P. sinicus from China. Thus, P. sinicus Zhu, 1963 is recognized as a junior synonym of P. nipponicus.

Funding This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31530067) to Shuqiang Li.

Acknowledgements Joseph K. H. Koh and Sarah Crews kindly checked the English. Takahide Kamura provided specimens of Plator nipponicus. Zhiwei Dong, Lu Qiu, Jin Wang, Rixin Jiang, Shixiang Jiang, Chao Wu, Xuanzhao Li, Kun Yu, Jincheng Liu, Zheng Zhou, Zhigang Chen, Yan Tong, Shuo Qi and Tian Lu tirelessly helped in field collection.