Tuponia (Tuponia) jaxartensis Drapolyuk, 1980 (Figures 10, 11)

Tuponia (Tuponia) jaxartensis Drapolyuk, 1980: 62

Placochilus paraseladonicus Qi & Nonnaizab, 1995: 143. New synonymy.

Qi and Nonnaizab (1995) described paraseladonicus from three specimens sampled in Xinjiang Uygur Province of China and placed it in the monotypic genus Placochilus without discussing the generic diagnostic features. Subsequently Kerzhner & Josifov (1999) suggested that this species apparently belongs to the genus Tuponia. Li & Liu (2010) studied the type specimens of P. paraseladonicus and transferred it to Tuponia based on the vesica structure. Comparison of the original description of T. paraseladonica and its subsequent redescription by Li & Liu (2016) to material of T. jaxartensis Drapolyuk allows me to conclude that they belong to the same species. Tuponia jaxartensis is a distinctive species described from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Drapolyuk 1982), differing from congeners by the shape of two partly membranous apical lobes with the larger lobe having finely serrate apico-lateral margin and characteristic round outgrowth at the level of secondary gonopore (Figs. 10, 11). Tuponia paraseadonica is indistinguishable from T. jaxartensis in the vesica structure and other features including sizes, coloration, characteristically elongated body of the left paramere, finely attenuated apex of the right paramere, and phallotheca devoid of large keels. Li & Liu (2010) provided a diagnosis for T. paraseladonica and stated that this species differs from T. jaxartensis in the small serrations at apex of the vesica, which in fact is typical for both species (see Qi & Nonnaizab, 1995). Thus the name Placochilus paraseladonicus Qi & Nonnaizab is here synonymized with Tuponia (Tuponia) jaxartensis Drapolyuk.