Redescription of holotypes of four Alopecosa species (Araneae, Lycosidae) from China

Abstract The holotypes of four species of Alopecosa Sundevall, 1833 described from China, A. disca Tang, Yin & Yang, 1997 (♀); A. orbisaca Peng, Yin, Zhang & Kim, 1997 (♀); A. wenxianensis Tang, Yin & Yang, 1997 (♂), and A. xilinensis Peng, Yin, Zhang & Kim, 1997 (♀), are reexamined. Detailed descriptions, illustrations, remarks, and a distribution map of the three valid species are given. Alopecosa xilinensissyn. nov. is found to be junior synonym of Alopecosa licenti (Schenkel, 1953).


Introduction
Alopecosa Simon, 1885, with 162 valid named species (WSC 2020), is the third largest genus in Lycosidae. Only Pardosa C.L. Koch, 1847 (542 species) and Arctosa C.L. Koch, 1847 (171) have more species (WSC 2020). Alopecosa is considered as globally distributed genus, known from all biogeographical realms, but most of its species oc-cur in the Palaearctic. The genus is relatively poorly studied: over at third of all species (67) are known by a single sex, and Alopecosa has never been revised at a wide scale. There are only regional reviews of the genus in Europe (Lugetti and Tongiorgi 1969), the Nearctic region (Dondale and Redner 1979), and Japan (Tanaka 1992). The lack of the studies on Alopecosa is partly caused by the brief original descriptions, some of which lack figures, and by difficult access to type material in numerous museums. Currently, 42 Alopecosa species are known in China (WSC 2020). Of them, 17 are known by a single sex and 12 are known by a single taxonomic entry (WSC 2020). Leading up to a regional revision of Alopecosa from East Asia, we redescribe all available types of poorly known species deposited in Chinese institutions. The goal of this paper is to provide detailed illustrated redescription of four species deposited in the Hunan Normal University.

Material and methods
Specimens were examined under an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope and an Olympus BX53 compound microscope. Photographs were taken with a Canon PowerShot G12 digital camera mounted on an Olympus BX53 compound microscope. Both the male palps and female genitalia were examined, photographed, and illustrated after being dissected. All morphological measurements are calculated using a stereomicroscope (LEICA M205C) and given in millimeters. Eye diameters are taken at the widest point. Promarginal and retromarginal teeth on the chelicerae are given as the first, second, third, etc., from the base of the fang to the distal groove.. Leg measurements are given as total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). Measurements of the holotypes are from the original description. All specimens examined in this study are deposited in the College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University (HNU).
Terminology in the present paper follows Zyuzin (1993) and Nadolny (2018). The abbreviations used in the present paper are as follows: Ag accessorial gland; ALE anterior lateral eye; AME anterior median eye; AME-AME distance between AMEs; AME-ALE distance between AME and ALE;  Hu & Li, 1987, a species known from Xizang Autonomous Region of China. Both species are lacking anterior hood, have base of septum width much longer than septal stem length, both have distinct copulatory opening, but can be separated by septum width/length ratio 2.5 in A. disca and 1.8 in A. chagyabensis. Two species well differ by the shape of the endogyne (compare Description. Body (Fig. 1A) length 16.0, carapace 7.9 long, 5.0 wide, abdomen 8.8 long, 5.8 wide (data from original description by Yin et al. 1997: 64). Carapace dark reddish brown. Cervical and radial grooves distinct, darker than body color. Fovea linear, short, but a little thick. Head region wide, with anterior margin almost 4/5 width of thorax region. Anterior eye row straight, almost as wide as median one, posterior row widest. Eye sizes and inter-distances ( Fig. 1A, B): AME 0.30, ALE 0.27, PME 0.49, PLE 0.47; AME-AME 0.19, AME-ALE 0.2, PME-PME 0.49, PME-PLE 0.67. Clypeus height 0.23. Chelicerae black-brown, with three promarginal and two retromarginal teeth (Fig.  1C). Both labium and endites black brown, with reddish brown distal parts. Sternum ( Fig. 1D) brown, with metallic luster. STL 3.52, STW 2.82 (Fig. 1D). Palp and legs reddish brown, robust, without any distinct annuli. Leg measurements: I 18.30 (5.00, 6.60, 3.80, 2.90); II 16.70 (4.80, 5.80, 3.60, 2.50); III 15.00 (4.50, 5.00, 3.60, 1.90); IV 20.40 (6.10, 7.00, 5.00, 2.30) (data from original description by Yin et al. 1997: 64), leg formula 4123. Dorsum of abdomen ( Fig. 1A) dark brown mixed yellowish brown. Cardiac mark distinct, dark brown and large. Posterior half of abdomen with 4 or 5 chevrons (because the type specimen has been wrinkled, chevron patterns showed in color photos of the present paper are not clearer than those showed in line drawings of the original paper). Venter of abdomen grey yellowish in the middle and dark grey laterally.
Epigyne (Figs 1E-I, 2) wider than long. Atrium and anterior hood absent. Septum weakly sclerotized, with short stem (Ss) and broad base (Sb); stem shorter than base height. Spermathecae with clavate head, slender and curved stalk, and accessorial gland (Ag) situated at the place near copulatory duct. Copulatory ducts short, slightly twisted.
Male. Unknown. Distribution. Only known from the type locality, Gansu, China (Fig. 10).     Diagnosis. The female of this species is similar to that of Alopecosa zyuzini Logunov & Marusik, 1995 in having a pair of separate anterior hoods and similar shape of septum. Alopecosa orbisaca can be separated from similar species by having large size (carapace 4.0 vs 2.85-3.58 in A. zyuzini), and wider stem of septum (septum wider than hood vs narrower than hood) (compare Fig. 3E and fig. 64-2
Epigyne (Figs 3E, F, 4) wide than long, with septum as long as wide, stem gradually widening toward the base, lateral margins of septum strongly sclerotized; anterior part of atrium with a pair of hoods (Ho); anterior part of septum (or stem, Ss) about 1.5 times wider than hoods. Spermatheca (Sp) divided distinctly into head and stalk, both of them with not smooth surface; a strong twist present at the connecting part between spermatheca and copulatory duct (Cd); copulatory duct long, ear-shaped.

Diagnosis.
Male palp of this species (Figs 5E, 6, 7) is similar to that of A. xinjiangensis Hu & Wu, 1989 by having sharply pointed tegular apophysis and differs by having relatively shorter tip of cymbium, rounded anterior edge of the tegular apophysis (vs almost straight) and tip of tegular apophysis located in mid part of the bulb (vs anterior 1/3) (Hu and Wu 1989: figs 162.5-6;Marusik et al. 2007: fig. 3).
Palp (Figs 5E, 6, 7). Cymbium brown, about 1.5 times longer than tibia, ca 1.8 times longer than wide, with the tip slightly swollen and covered with some strong setae. Bulb 1.25 times longer than wide; tegulum inclined at ca 50º angle and sperm duct (Sd) at about 20°; tegular apophysis sharply pointed, with smoothly rounded anterior margin, tip directed at right angle to the axis of cymbium and located in the middle part of the bulb; palea subequal in size to the subtegulum, with almost undeveloped short and rounded synembolus (Sy); embolus hidden by the tegular apophysis and only tip visible in ventral view.
Remarks. Because the abdomen is wrinkled, several transversal or oblique stripes on the dorsum shown in Figure 5A are less clear than those shown in line drawings of the original description.
Distribution. The species has a rather wide distribution in China, known from Gansu to Heilongjiang and south to Sichuan (Zhu and Zhang 2011;Li and Lin 2016). Besides China, this species is known from Tuva, Khabarovsk and Maritime provinces in Russia (Mikhailov 2013), Mongolia, and also Korea (WSC 2020).