Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum (Araneae: Eresidae)

Abstract

Ujjwala Shivaji Deshmukh described Stegodyphus semadohensis based on a holotype female from the village of Semadoh in the state of Maharashtra, India (Deshmukh, 2013; note: the surname of the author is Deshmukh not Shivaji). The description is very short, and several of the figures are of poor quality. Nonetheless, the illustrations of the epigyne and vulva are sufficient enough to recognise that it is an adult female of Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock, 1900. This was subsequently proposed by El-Hennawy (2016), who synonymised S. semadohensis with S. pacificus. Since both sexes of S. pacificus were described and illustrated in an extensive revision of Stegodyphus Simon, 1873 by Kraus & Kraus (1989), it is hard to understand why Deshmukh (2013) only diagnosed the female of S. semadohensis from the more distantly related Stegodyphus mirandus Pocock, 1899, and failed to recognise it as a specimen of S. pacificus. Regardless, it has been overlooked by El-Hennawy (2016) and the World Spider Catalog from 2015 to the present day (see World Spider Catalog, 2023) that the name Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 was, in any case, unavailable. Nowhere in the original description can be found a statement that the type material has been deposited in a specific collection, nor the name and location of a collection (Deshmukh, 2013). Therefore, the name is unavailable per Article 16.4.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999). The purpose of this short note is to state that Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum.

Full text

SERKET تكرس
The Arachnological Bulletin
of the Middle East and North Africa
Volume 20 Part 1
December, 2023 Cairo, Egypt
***********
ISSN: 1110-502X

Serket (2023) vol. 20(1): 18-19.
Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum
(Araneae: Eresidae)
Danniella Sherwood 1,2,* & Hisham K. El-Hennawy 3
1 Arachnology Research Association, London, United Kingdom
2 Fundación Ariguanabo, San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba
3 41 El-Manteqa El-Rabia St., Heliopolis, Cairo 11341, Egypt
* Corresponding author e-mail address: danni.sherwood@hotmail.com
Ujjwala Shivaji Deshmukh described Stegodyphus semadohensis based on a
holotype female from the village of Semadoh in the state of Maharashtra, India
(Deshmukh, 2013; note: the surname of the author is Deshmukh not Shivaji). The
description is very short, and several of the figures are of poor quality. Nonetheless, the
illustrations of the epigyne and vulva are sufficient enough to recognise that it is an adult
female of Stegodyphus pacificus Pocock, 1900. This was subsequently proposed by El-
Hennawy (2016), who synonymised S. semadohensis with S. pacificus. Since both sexes
of S. pacificus were described and illustrated in an extensive revision of Stegodyphus
Simon, 1873 by Kraus & Kraus (1989), it is hard to understand why Deshmukh (2013)
only diagnosed the female of S. semadohensis from the more distantly related
Stegodyphus mirandus Pocock, 1899, and failed to recognise it as a specimen of S.
pacificus.
Regardless, it has been overlooked by El-Hennawy (2016) and the World Spider
Catalog from 2015 to the present day (see World Spider Catalog, 2023) that the name
Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 was, in any case, unavailable. Nowhere in
the original description can be found a statement that the type material has been deposited
in a specific collection, nor the name and location of a collection (Deshmukh, 2013).
Therefore, the name is unavailable per Article 16.4.2 of the International Code of
Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999). The purpose of this short note is to state that
Stegodyphus semadohensis Deshmukh, 2013 is a nomen nudum.
Of note, Deshmukh (2013) was, initially, seemingly not fully accessible or widely
known to the arachnological community. It was not until 2015 that it was first indexed in
the World Spider Catalog, at that time still maintained by Norman I. Platnick at the
American Museum of Natural History. In this entry (Platnick, 2015) is an accompanying

19
note stating “only abstract seen”, indicating the full work (as “Shivaji, 2013”) was not
able to be accessed. In version 15.5 of the Catalog – maintained from thereafter (and until
the present day) by the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern following Platnick’s retirement –
the note added previously was omitted, and a portable document file of the work added,
without recognition S. semadohensis was a nomen nudum (World Spider Catalog, 2015).
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Theo Blick (World Spider Catalog) for commenting on
this note.
References
Deshmukh, U.S. [not Shivaji, D.U.] 2013. Stegodyphus semadohensis: a new species from family
Eresidae, recorded from Satpuda, Maharashtra, India (Arachnida: Araneae: Eresidae).
Environment Conservation Journal, 14(3): 109-111.
El-Hennawy, H.K. 2016. Stegodyphus tibialis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) in Central India
(Araneae: Eresidae), with notes on Indian Stegodyphus species. Indian Journal of Arachnology,
5(1-2): 28-35.
ICZN 1999. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Fourth edition. International Trust
for Zoological Nomenclature, 106 pp.
Kraus, O. & Kraus, M. 1989. The genus Stegodyphus (Arachnida, Araneae). Sibling species,
species groups, and parallel origin of social living. Verhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen
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Pocock, R.I. 1900. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Arachnida. Taylor
and Francis, London, 279 pp.
Simon, E. 1873. Etudes arachnologiques. 2e Mémoire. III. Note sur les espèces européennes de la
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online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch, accessed on 14.11.2023.