Eylais bisinuosa Piersig 1899

Eylais bisinuosa Piersig, 1899

Eylais bisinuosa nodipons Viets, 1919, syn. nov.

Material examined: Eylais bisinuosa nodipons K. Viets holotype female SMF 943.

Rejected identification: E. bisinuosa Voorst, Molenkolk, The Netherlands, May 1929, slide 401, coll. Besseling, ZMAN (representing E. tullgreni).

Discussion: No type material of Eylais bisinuosa is available and several authors proposed to consider it a species incerta (K. Viets 1956b) or a synonym of E. tantilla (Davids 1979). However, in the holotype of Eylais bisinuosa nodipons we find the typical shape of the gnathosoma and palps as it was described for the stem species. Eylais bisinuosa differs from the closely related species E. planipons, E. tantilla and E. tullgreni in a smaller mouth disk and the setae on the projection of P­3 being needle­like, not shortened and enlarged. Thus a specimen preserved under the name of E. bisinuosa in ZMAN must clearly belong to the latter species group. A relatively short pharyngeal plate (<300) and P­4 (<250), and the minute eye bridge with a deep anterior indentation indicate that it belongs to E. tullgreni. The minor morphological differences which induced the description of the subspecies E. b. nodipons are surely taxonomically insignificant. We consider it a junior synonym of the stem species.