Species of Wadicosa (Araneae, Lycosidae): transfer of four species from Africa currently placed in Pardosa.

Pardosa enucleata Roewer, 1959, P. mabweana Roewer, 1959, P. manubriata Simon, 1898, and P. sordidecolorata (Strand, 1906) are redescribed and illustrated. The male of P. enucleata (erroneously described previously as P. manubriata) and that of P. mabweana are described here for the first time. Arguments are provided for transferring these four species to Wadicosa Zyuzin, 1985. W. enucleata comb. nov., W. mabweana comb. nov. and W. manubriata comb. nov. constitute a monophyletic group which shares a unique configuration of the embolus in the males as well as paired structures of a specific texture associated with the spermathecae in the females. W. enucleata and W. manubriata both have a wide distribution in southern Africa, the northernmost record of the former being in Ivory Coast, Togo, and the Central African Republic, and that of W. manubriata in the DR Congo. W. mabweana was originally described on material from DR Congo and is here reported also from Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Namibia. W. sordidecolorata comb. nov. was originally described from Ethiopia, and is here reported also from Uganda, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. Pardosa darolii (Strand, 1906) syn. nov. is recognized as a junior synonym to Wadicosa sordidecolorata.