Thermal ecology of Plesiopelma longisternale: novel insights and comparative analysis with a sympatric species

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  Thermal ecology of Plesiopelma longisternale: novel insights and comparative analysis with a sympatric species Abstract Understanding thermal responses in ectotherms is key to assessing vulnerability to climate change. Tarantulas (Theraphosidae) are informative models due to their sedentary lifestyle, long life cycles, and reliance on specific microhabitats. We present the first integrative assessment of the thermal ecology of Plesiopelma longisternale , a widespread Argentine species, combining experimentally derived thermal limits and thermal preferences with species distribution models, and compare its thermal profile with the sympatric Grammostola vachoni to explore patterns of thermal niche differentiation. Plesiopelma longisternale showed a minimum thermal limit near 4 °C, a maximum near 44 °C, a thermal optimum of 29.5 °C, a narrow thermal performance breadth, and a preferred temperature of approximately 32 °C. Models integrating climatic and thermal parameters predicted...

A new Otacilia Thorell, 1897 species from Hubei Province, China (Araneae, Phrurolithidae)

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A new Otacilia Thorell, 1897 species from Hubei Province, China (Araneae, Phrurolithidae)

Otacilia Thorell, 1897, the largest genus of family Phrurolithidae, contains 143 species and is distributed in East Asia and Southeast Asia; amongst them, 120 species were reported in China (Anonymous 2024). The species and studies of Otacilia have accelerated considerably during past decade and reduced the complexity of Otacilia by assigning species to newly-established genera (Liu et al. 2020, Zamani and Marusik 2020, Kamura 2021, Mu and Zhang 2021, Liu et al. 2022, Mu and Zhang 2022, Mu et al. 2022, Mu and Zhang 2023), which greatly promoted the study of Otacilia. Recently, O. khezu Lin & Li, 2024, a eyeless species collected from a cave was described, showing enormous potential for species diversity (Lin et al. 2024). While examining specimens collected from Duheyuan Nature Reserve, one new Otacilia species has been discovered and is described here: Otacilia subshanxi sp. nov.

Guo M, Mu Y, Zhang F (2024) A new Otacilia Thorell, 1897 species from Hubei Province, China (Araneae, Phrurolithidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e137014. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e137014