New species of Dolomedes (Araneae: Dolomedidae) from Kerala, India with insights on Indian records of the genus

India is a biodiverse-rich country with four global hotspots and a high level of endemism. These locations continue to be re-counted with new species discoveries. The present exploratory study was conducted at Wayanad, Kerala which is part of the Western Ghats. The genus Dolomedes Latreille, 1804 commonly known as Raft or Fishing spiders belonging to the family Dolomedidae Simon, 1876, is widely distributed across the globe except Antarctica. However, it was only in 2025 a valid study confirmed the presence of the genus and family scientifically from India. However, several checklists and articles have mentioned the presence of this genus in the country before. This study details the first record of a new species Dolomedes indicus sp. nov from both sexes. This study used both classical and molecular taxonomic method for more robust species-level identification. A basic phylogenetic tree of the Dolomedes genus with novel species was created using the MT-CO1 gene.