A new species of Liphistius from Myanmar and description of the actual male of L. birmanicus Thorell, 1897 (Araneae, Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)

Xin Xu; Li Yu; Khin Pyae Pyae Aung; Long Yu; Fengxiang Liu; Wai Wai Lwin; Men Zing Sang; Daiqin Li

doi:10.3897/zookeys.1031.59102

A new species of Liphistius from Myanmar and description of the actual male of L. birmanicus Thorell, 1897 (Araneae, Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)

Zookeys. 2021 Apr 14:1031:41-58. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1031.59102. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xin Xu^{1

2

3}, Li Yu¹, Khin Pyae Pyae Aung^{4

5}, Long Yu², Fengxiang Liu², Wai Wai Lwin⁴, Men Zing Sang⁴, Daiqin Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, 36 Lushan Road, Changsha 410081, Hunan Province, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, and Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, 368 Youyi Road, Wuhan 430062, Hubei Province, China.
³ School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Department of Zoology, University of Yangon, Kamayut Township, Pyay Road, Yangon, 11041, Myanmar.
⁵ Department of Biology, Taungoo Education College, Taungoo, 08101, Myanmar.
⁶ Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, 117543, Singapore.

Abstract

Five Liphistius Schiödte, 1849 species of the primitively segmented spider family Liphistiidae are currently known from Myanmar. Here, we described a new species, Liphistius pyinoolwin sp. nov. (♂♀), which was collected from Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region, Myanmar, diagnosed based on its genital morphology. The specimens (2♂♂, 5♀♀) collected by Walter C. Sedgwick from Pyin Oo Lwin in 1982 were misidentified as L. birmanicus Thorell, 1897 and are treated here as the newly described species. Accordingly, we described the males of L. birmanicus for the first time, redescribed its female, using newly collected specimens from Yadò, Than Taung and Kalekho Atet townships, Kayin State. We also provided information on the variation in genital morphology of both species, and their relationships within the birmanicus-group of species.

Keywords: Morphology; South-east Asia; taxonomy; trapdoor spiders.

Grants and funding

the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC) (31272324; 32070430), the Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF Tier 1 grant (R-154-000-A52-114), ASEAN University Network funding, and Special PhD Program on Zoology from Hubei University.