Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972 )

Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972) rest. comb.

Nesticus terrestris: Yaginuma, 1970: 390 , fig. 7 (♁, misidentification).

Nesticus mogera Yaginuma, 1972: 621 , fig. 1 (♁ ♀).

Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977: 153 , figs. 67a–h. (♁ ♀) n. syn.

Howaia mogera: Lehtinen & Saaristo (1980) : 53, figs. 7–9, 22–23, 29b (♁ ♀, transfer from Nesticus View in CoL ).

Howaia mogera: Marusik & Guseinov (2003) : 38, figs. 17–21 (♁ ♀, not explicitly revalidated).

For full synonymy list, see WSC (2023).

Material examined. Type material of Nesticus helenensis : holotype ♀, paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129084), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 14.XII.1965 – 15.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♁ [allotype] ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 133336), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 26.I.1967, coll. J. Decelle and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129205), The Briars [listed as Prosperous Bay, Bryan's Rock in Hubert (1977)], 1,000ft., 6.I.1966, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129183), Prosperous Bay, Bryan's Rock, 1,000ft., 14.XI.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129171), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 6.I.1966, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype ♀ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 129425), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 19.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined ; paratype imm. ♁ ( BE _ RMCA _ARA. Ara. 135896), Fisher's Valley, Saint Helena, 1,000ft., 14.XII.1965 – 15.XII.1965, coll. P. Basilewsky, P. L. G. Benoit and N. Leleup, examined .

Diagnosis. (Adapted from Lin et al., 2016) Howaia mogera can be distinguished from most known male congeners based on the thin ventral apophysis, and blunted paracymbial process ( vs. ventral apophysis wider and paracymbial process not blunted in most known congeners, except H. rongtangensis ). Females can be distinguished by the short, robust and conspicuously protruding scape ( vs. scape not short, robust and conspicuously protruding in known congeners). Howaia mogera is distinguished from H. rongtangensis in both sexes by the presence of eyes ( vs. eyes absent in both sexes of H. rongtangensis ).

Description. For detailed description, see Lin et al. (2016). However, it is important to state that all recent works illustrating and/or redescribing H. mogera n. comb. have focused on non-Japanese material (e.g., Azerbaijan (Marusik & Guisenov, 2003), China ( Gong & Zhu, 1982; Liu & Li, 2013), Fiji ( Lehtinen & Saaristo, 1980), the Hawaiian Islands ( Gertsch, 1984), Italy ( Pantini et al., 2020), Korea ( Kim et al., 1999; Kim & Lee, 2018) and Saint Helena ( Hubert, 1977) [the latter as N. helenensis ]).

Rationale for synonymy. The palp morphology of the paratype male of Nesticus helenensis ( Figs. 2, 5 View FIGURES 1–6 ) is in agreement with all prior published illustrations of the male palp of Howaia mogera . Similarly, the epigynal morphology of the holotype ( Figs. 4, 6 View FIGURES 1–6 ) fits with previously published illustrations of H. mogera . The habitus ( Figs. 1, 3 View FIGURES 1–6 ) is also congruent with that of preserved specimens of H. mogera (DS pers. obs.). The potential for synonymy was already recognised by Lehtinen & Saaristo (1980), but no formal synonymy was made. We hereby formally make the synonymy: Nesticus helenensis Hubert, 1977 = Howaia mogera ( Yaginuma, 1972) n. syn.

Distribution. United Kingdom to Japan, introduced to Hawaii and Saint Helena ( Nentwig et al., 2023; WSC, 2023).