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Within the last few decades, arachnology in the Neotropical region has experienced a great development filling the knowledge gap in one of the most diverse regions of the world. Nevertheless, large geographical areas remain poorly sampled, especially within the Amazon, and new genera and species have been continuously discovered, even in urban areas. In congruence with the recent improvements in research, several aspects of the ecology, behaviour and natural history of spiders, such as interactions with other predators and parasitoids, social interactions, dispersal patterns, habitat requirements, mating behaviors, among others, are being carefully investigated. These recent contributions incorporate substantial information on the preexisting knowledge on these subjects every year. Our main objective with this book is to present a summary on these new researches and on the currently knowledge on the main subjects involved in the general theme, emphasizing the contribution of the rich fauna of the Neotropical region to the research of behaviour and ecology of the spiders.
The Micropholcommatidae are a family of tiny, distinctive araneoid spiders, known from southern-temperate habitats throughout Australasia and Chile. The greatest abundance of individuals and the largest diversity of taxa occur in the cool-temperate rainforests of south-eastern Australia and New Zealand, where micropholcommatid spiders can be very common within moss and leaf litter microhabitats. Although poorly studied biologically and largely neglected taxonomically, the Micropholcommatidae are a diverse lineage, with a significantÿ The monograph in this volume presents a complete generic-level revision of the spider family Micropholcommatidae. The phylogenetic position and internal phylogeny of the family are tested with two separate morphological cladistic analyses, the results of which inform a comprehensive generic-level classification. In total, 26 new species, 12 new genera, one new tribe and two new subfamilies are described, taking the total documented micropholcommatid fauna to 58 species. The distribution and Gondwanan biogeography of the family are also discussed, and natural history information is provided where known. Most importantly, the results of this paper present a taxonomic framework and a phylogenetic foundation for all future research on the Micropholcommatidae; a template by which new species can be described and existing species can be identified, and a valuable dataset for exploring phylogenetic hypotheses.
The name velvet spider describes the dark and shiny appearance of members of the family Eresidae. Some species also have brightly-colored highlights, such as the red, white, and black ladybird spiders of Europe and North Asia. This family also includes some of the world?s most cooperative spider species. Social species can be very abundant in parts of tropical Africa and Asia with conspicuous colonies dotting the landscape. Social colonies may consist of hundreds of closely-related individuals that participate in dramatic mass attacks on prey and care for their young. The ecology of these social species is fascinating and has been the subject of several landmark scientific papers. By contrast, most kinds of velvet spider are rarely encountered. Most species keep well hidden or dig burrows and live underground. This monograph provides a generic-level review of Eresidae documented with collections of photographs, scanning electron micrographs, and illustrations. A key to the nine genera and other major lineages is provided. A new phylogeny of Eresidae based on molecular sequence data expands on a previously published analysis. Cybertaxonomic enhancements include an interactive map of the specimens used in the study explorable using Google Earth, specimen records uploaded to GBIF, and molecular sequence alignments and other data archived on Dryad. An EDIT Integrated Research grant provided principal funding for this project.
The spider genus Tayshaneta is revised based on results from a three gene phylogenetic analysis (Ledford et al. 2011) and a comprehensive morphological survey using scanning electron (SEM) and compound light micros-copy. The morphology and relationships within Tayshaneta are discussed and five species-groups are supported by phylogenetic analyses: the anopica group, the coeca group, the myopica group, the microps group and the sandersi group. Short branch lengths within Tayshaneta contrast sharply with the remaining North American genera and are viewed as evidence for a relatively recent radiation of species. Variation in troglomorphic morphology is discussed and compared to patterns found in other Texas cave invertebrates. Several species previously known as single cave endemics have wider ranges than expected, suggesting that some caves are not isolated habitats but instead form part of interconnected karst networks. Distribution maps are compared with karst faunal regions (KFR?s) in Central Texas and the implications for the conservation and recovery of Tayshaneta species are discussed. Ten new species are described: T. archambaulti sp. n., T. emeraldae sp. n., T. fawcetti sp. n., T. grubbsi sp. n., T. madla sp. n., T. oconnorae sp. n., T. sandersi sp. n., T. sprousei sp. n., T. vidrio sp. n. and T. whitei sp. n. The males for three species, T. anopica (Gertsch, 1974), T. devia (Gertsch, 1974) and T. microps (Gertsch, 1974) are described for the first time. Tayshaneta furtiva (Gertsch, 1974) and T. uvaldea (Gertsch, 1974) are declared nomina dubia as the female holotypes are not diagnosable and efforts to locate specimens at the type localities were unsuccessful. All Tayshaneta species are thoroughly illustrated, diagnosed and keyed. Distribution maps are also provided highlighting areas of taxonomic ambiguity in need of additional sampling.
The Assassin Spiders of the family Archaeidae are an ancient and iconic lineage of basal araneomorph spiders, characterised by a specialised araneophagic ecology and unique, ?pelican-like? cephalic morphology. Found throughout the rainforests, wet sclerophyll forests and mesic heathlands of south-western, south-eastern and north-eastern Australia, the genus Austrarchaea Forster & Platnick, 1984 includes a diverse assemblage of relictual, largely short-range endemic species. With recent dedicated field surveys and significant advances in our understanding of archaeid biology and ecology, numerous new species of assassin spiders have been discovered in the montane sub-tropical and warm-temperate closed forests of mid-eastern Australia, including several rare or enigmatic taxa and species of conservation concern. This fauna is revised and 17 new species are described from south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales: A. alani sp. n., A. aleenae sp. n., A. binfordae sp. n., A. christopheri sp. n., A. clyneae sp. n., A. cunninghami sp. n., A. dianneae sp. n., A. harmsi sp. n., A. helenae sp. n., A. judyae sp. n., A. mascordi sp. n., A. mcguiganae sp. n., A. milledgei sp. n., A. monteithi sp. n., A. platnickorum sp. n., A. raveni sp. n. and A. smithae sp. n. Adult specimens of the type species, A. nodosa (Forster, 1956) are redescribed from the Lamington Plateau, south-eastern Queensland, and distinguished from the sympatric species A. dianneae sp. n. A key to species and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of COI and COII mtDNA sequences complement the species-level taxonomy, with maps, habitat photos, natural history information and conservation assessments provided for all species.
Over a period of 10 years, scientists from a coalition of international institutions surveyed the biota of the Gaoligong mountains in western Yunnan, China. Focal taxa included selected plants, vertebrates, and arthropods. The study area lies at the heart of one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and is home to biomes ranging from subtropical forest to tundra. In this special issue, we report on the results of that survey for micro-orbweaving spiders, cryptic animals mostly less than 1 mm long that build delicate, geometric webs. All told, over 1,000 adult micro-orbweavers were collected and sorted to three dozen species, all new to science. The enormous scale of the world’s biodiversity means that science needs data structures to facilitate organization, aggregation, and instant sharing of data. This publication contributes to major aggregators and indexers of electronic biodiversity data including ZooBank, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Morphbank, and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), supplementing the traditional paper mode. Typical of publications in taxonomy, this paper is composed of several components including the primary biodiversity data (specimen, locality, and related information), media (e.g., photographs and drawings), text elements (e.g., species descriptions), and nomenclature (e.g., new taxonomic names). Once these elements are parsed and absorbed by community databases, they can be disseminated, indexed, and recombined in myriad ways inconceivable for static paper publications. The barely imagined potential of these maturing digital resources makes the early 21st century a very exciting historical moment in taxonomy.
The spider genus Selenops occurs in both the Old World and New World subtropics and tropics and contains nearly half of the species in the family Selenopidae. These spiders are extremely flattened dorsoventrally and are amongst the fast-est animals in the world. Despite the large size of some species, these aforementioned characteristics can make them difficult to detect. In this monograph the species from North America, Central America and Caribbean Islands (excluding Cuban endemics) are revised. In total, 21 new species are described and 6 species are synonymized. The males of S. bani and S. marcanoi, and the females of S. phaselus and S. geraldinae are described for the first time. Almost all species are redescribed, with new illustrations, including the internal female copulatory organs, most of which are illustrated for the first time. New distributional records and a key to species are also provided.