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Callilepis nocturna |
| Subspecies Original description Synonyms Aranea nocturna Linnaeus, 1758 Drassus
nocturnus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Drassus gnaphosus
Walckenaer, 1905Pythonissa nocturna (Linnaeus, 1758) Melanophora nocturna (Linnaeus, 1758) Gnaphosa nocturna (Linnaeus, 1758) Callilepis nocturna (Linnaeus, 1758) Calliplepis nocturna (Linnaeus, 1758) (lapsus) Filistata maculata Wider, 1834 Callilepis
maculata (Wider, 1834)
Pythonissa
holobera C. L. Koch, 1839Pythonissa maculata (Wider, 1834) Drassus maculatus (Wider, 1834) Gnaphosa maculata (Wider, 1834) Callilepis maculata (Wider, 1834) Pythonissa nana C. L. Koch, 1843 (p. 119) (nomen dubium, see below) Gnaphosa nana
(C. L. Koch, 1843)
Poecilochroa
ochridana Drensky, 1929Type locality: Erlangen, Bayern, Germany Callilepis ochridana
(Drensky, 1929)
Note: Pythonissa nana is a nomen dubium and most authors list it as an unidentifiable species of Gnaphosa. However, the description by Koch (1843) describes a small black spider with a white-marked opisthosoma, quite unlike any species of Gnaphosa. The spotted opisthosoma points to a species of either Aphantaulax, Poecilochroa, Kishidaia or Callilepis. Koch himself compares his new species with Kishidaia conspicua, suggesting that the two are related. However, the leg color pattern given in the description does not agree with Kishidaia or Poecilochroa (see also the next note!). Also the small size of Pythonissa nana of below 4 mm argues against Kishidaia and Poecilochroa. Aphantaulax has never been recorded from Germany, thus is unlikely as well. Species of Callilepis are frequently below 4 mm and especially as juveniles show the leg color pattern and very weak white spotted opisthosomal pattern described by Koch. Thus, I suggest that the single dried out specimen available to Koch that was the basis for the species description of Pythonissa nana was a juvenile Callilepis nocturna. Note: the coloring of Pythonissa nana in Koch´s (1843) book on plate CCCLVI is incorrect and does not agree with the text. This is a common problem with older works that have colorized copper (or other) plates. Mostly the author had an opportunity to proofread the typeset text and the original engravings for the plates prepared by illustrators/engravers. But then all copies of the book were painted by colorists without the control of the author. Often the colorists demonstrated quite some creativity and thus many copies of the same work show very different colors for the species. In the copies of Koch´s book that I have seen so far, the painting of Pythonissa nana is wrong, probably because the text is confusing on first reading: "Die Taster, die Hüften, die Knie, die Schienbeine und die Fersen der Beine sind hellgelb, die Schenkel und die Scheinbeine der letztern glänzend schwarz." The confusion arises from the double meaning of the German "letztern" (1: "the latter"; 2: "the last"). The true meaning is only obvious if one realizes that the color of the tibiae has already been defined as "yellow" and thus "letztern" does not refer to all legs, but only to the "last" legs. The correct translation is therefore: "The pedipalps, the coxae, the patellae, the tibiae and the metatarsi of the legs are light yellow, the femora (of all legs) and the tibiae of the last legs (=hind legs) are shining black". This pattern is virtually identical with the leg color pattern of juvenile Callilepis. Identification Distribution Biology |
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