New insights into maternal care and juvenile dispersal in Pterinopelma roseum (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

Posted by
  New insights into maternal care and juvenile dispersal in Pterinopelma roseum (Araneae: Theraphosidae) Abstract Tarantulas (Theraphosidae) exhibit a wide diversity of reproductive behaviors, yet many aspects of their natural history, particularly those related to maternal care and juvenile dispersal, remain poorly known. Pterinopelma roseum is a species distributed in southern Brazil and northeastern Argentina for which information on reproductive biology is limited. The aim of this study was to document maternal care, egg sac composition, and juvenile dispersal through the monitoring of a female collected together with its egg sac in Misiones Province, Argentina. The female was maintained under controlled laboratory conditions and observed daily until juvenile dispersal. During the incubation period, the female actively protected the egg sac, remaining in contact with it most of the time and displaying defensive behaviors when disturbed, while continuing to feed regularly. The e...

An inordinate fondness for spinnerets: on some spiders of the genera Diplura C. L. Koch, 1850 and Linothele Karsch, 1879 with new species, records, and notes on types (Araneae: Dipluridae)

Posted by

 


An inordinate fondness for spinnerets: on some spiders of the genera Diplura C. L. Koch, 1850 and Linothele Karsch, 1879 with new species, records, and notes on types (Araneae: Dipluridae)

Abstract
During recent routine curatorial work in the Natural History Museum, London three additional specimens, two of Diplura nigra (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896) and one of D. sanguinea (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896) – previously not known to have been separated from the original respective type samples according the museum database – were located in a box of returned material from an external loan. Thus, the number of paralectotypes of these taxa must be revised. We also record D. sanguinea from Colombia for the first time, further expanding the distribution range of this widespread taxon. Knowledge of the linothelid taxa of Colombia is advanced, with description of Linothele gaboi sp. nov. and Linothele wiwa sp. nov., and the first Colombian distribution records of L. curvitarsis Karsch, 1879. Additionally, we also describe two new species from Peru: L. abispa sp. nov. and L. wallacei sp. nov. Linothele melloleitaoi (Brignoli, 1983), from Colombia, is considered a nomen dubium.

Sherwood, Danniella & Seiter, Michael. (2023). An inordinate fondness for spinnerets: on some spiders of the genera Diplura C. L. Koch, 1850 and Linothele Karsch, 1879 with new species, records, and notes on types (Araneae: Dipluridae). 1-22.