In Memoriam: Gérard Dupré (1947–2026) — A Life Devoted to the Study of Scorpions

  Photo Credit: Le Parisien In Memoriam: Gérard Dupré (1947–2026) — A Life Devoted to the Study of Scorpions The passing of Gérard Dupré (1947–2026) is a deeply felt loss for those of us who share an interest in the study of scorpions and other arachnids. Throughout his life, he dedicated himself to documenting and preserving arachnological knowledge, contributing valuable work on scorpion taxonomy, distribution, and bibliography. His careful attention to the literature helped bring clarity and organization to a field whose history spans centuries and many languages. Gérard was also closely associated with the journal Arachnides , which became an important outlet for sharing research, faunistic records, and historical notes within the arachnological community. Through this work, he helped ensure that observations and studies—large and small—were preserved and made accessible to others with similar scientific interests. Beyond his scholarly contributions, Gérard was a humble and gen...

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

 


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. 2020Zamani and Marusik 2020Kamura 2021Mu and Zhang 2021Liu et al. 2022Mu and Zhang 2022Mu et al. 2022Mu 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