crab spider males

[Pekka T. Lehtinen]

Dear taxacomers,
        As a part of the taxonomic revision of the crab spiders I have planned to
take (and publish) SEM-micrographs of the male palpi of all type species of
thomisid genera. Naturally type material cannot be used for this purpose
and there are much difficulties in getting suitable material for this
purpose. A great majority of the types of world Thomisid genera have
already been studied and photographed, but material for some genera is
still lacking and the descriptions of adult males for some genera have not
yet been published.
        At this moment, material of following genera would be important:
        - Pistius truncatus - an European species, but rare in collections,
especially for male sex. A male of the asiatic species could be used,
unless the material of the type species could be obtained in reasonable
time. However, at this moment no males of Pistius are available for this
purpose.
        - Oriental genera with no known males, e.g., Zygometis, and "Tharrhalea"
maculata constitute another type of problem. Therefore I ask people, who
have collected thomisid material from southeast Asia to contact me for for
details.
There are no problems for most Oriental genera, except for species with
males adult only from May to August. Some of these species seem to be quite
common, as seen in the numbers of juvenile specimens in other seasons.
        - If there are people, who have collected crab spiders in Africa, South
America or Madagascar, please contact for more detailed information.
        When Citex rules are essential for sending of species, not listed as
endangered species, please use the Citex Code of our Museum FI-016.
        Thanking in advance

        Pekka T. Lehtinen


Pekka T. Lehtinen, Curator        Tel.  +358 2 3335773
Zoological Museum                 Fax   +358 2 3336590
University of Turku               Email pekleh at utu.fi
FIN-20014 Turku, Finland