What’s a Spider? Designation of the Neotype for the First Animal Species Ever Described, Araneus angulatus Clerck 1757 (Araneae: Araneidae)

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  What’s a Spider? Designation of the Neotype for the First Animal Species Ever Described, Araneus angulatus Clerck 1757 (Araneae: Araneidae) Abstract We designate a neotype for the Eurasian spider species Araneus angulatus Clerck, 1757, thereby fixing the objective application of the species name, the genus name Araneus Clerck 1757, the family name Araneidae Clerck 1757, and the superfamily name Araneoidea Clerck 1757. By etymology and arachnological tradition, it also unofficially fixes the application of the ordinal name Araneae Clerck 1757 and thus answers the uncontroversial question, “What’s a spider?” A. angulatus also happens to be historically the first animal species ever described because Clerck (1757) has priority over Linnaeus (1758). Neotype designation is justified for three reasons: the syntypes of A. angulatus are lost; “ A. angulatus ” contains significant COI sequence divergence, potentially representing intraspecific variation, misidentifications, or as many...

A new species related to Pardosa atrata (Araneae, Lycosidae) from Armenia makes the distribution range of the atrata group disjunctive

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A new species related to Pardosa atrata (Araneae, Lycosidae) from Armenia makes the distribution range of the atrata group disjunctive

Abstract

Species of wolf spiders considered in the Pardosa atrata group are surveyed, and comparative figures of all species included in the group are presented for the first time. A new species, P. armeniaca sp. nov., is described from the shore of Lake Sevan (Armenia) based on both sexes. Pardosa narymica Savelyeva, 1972 from East Kazakhstan Oblast’ is synonymized with the trans-Palaearctic P. atrata (Thorell, 1873). It was found that the record of P. atrata (sub P. lapponica) by Schenkel from British Columbia and reflected in the World Spider Catalog in fact refers to P. concinna (Thorell, 1877), a member of the P. lapponica group. The distribution of three species consideredin the atrata group are mapped. The discovery of P. armeniaca sp. nov. has led to a re-evaluation of the distribution range, previously thought to be continuous, now showing a disjunctive pattern.

Marusik YМ (2023) A new species related to Pardosa atrata (Araneae, Lycosidae) from Armenia makes the distribution range of the atrata group disjunctive. ZooKeys 1180: 225-235. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1180.111069