Mardonia Thorell

Genus Mardonia Thorell, 1897

Type and only species.— Mardonia fasciata Thorell 1897, jv, 4l/ 2 mm, Palon, Burma.

No material labelled with this name was found in the MCSNG in Genova.

It is impossible to associate this species, described from an immature specimen and placed in the Phrurolithinae with any of the genera of Liocranidae or Phrurolithinae. However, the description fully covers juvenile specimens of an as yet unidentified species of Seramba Thorell, 1887 (Sparassidae: Sparianthinae), a common spider in southwestern Thailand and part of Malaysia. Adults are rare, but juveniles are abundant and exhibit a superficial similarity to liocranids; they occur in the same habitat as phrurolithines, viz. leaf litter of moist forest. A striking feature is the black longitudinal double band on the carapace, continued in the eye region and extended over the whole length of the chelicerae and the abdomen, on the latter with an anterior curl. These black markings disappear in larger juveniles and in adult specimens, where the colour is dominantly dark brown.

Liocraninae s.l. incertae sedis.— Paratus Simon, 1898; Argistes Simon, 1897.

Typical genera of Liocraninae inhabit the temperate Holarctic region. In tropical East Asia, Argistes Simon, 1897 and Paratus Simon, 1898 HNA, both endemics from Sri Lanka, are tentatively assigned to this subfamily. Both these genera differ from European genera Liocranum, Mesiotelus, Agroeca and Apostenus and from Otacilia and Sudharmia by the absence of a retrocoxal window. In Paratus, the median spinnerets in females are more rounded and bear 3 or more enlarged spigots with long thin shaft; females of Argistes are unknown.