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...

Taxonomic notes on the genus Yunohamella Yoshida, 2007 (Araneae, Theridiidae) from China, with two new species

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Taxonomic notes on the genus Yunohamella Yoshida, 2007 (Araneae, Theridiidae) from China, with two new species

Abstract

Four Yunohamella species are reported from Hubei Province, China, including two new species: Y. gutenbergi R. Zhong, J. Liu & Hu, sp. nov. (♂) and Y. mohorovicici R. Zhong, J. Liu & Hu, sp. nov. (♂). Yunohamella jiugongensis (Liu & Zhong, 2023), comb. nov. is transferred from the genus Cryptachaea Archer, 1946, and Y. lyrica (Walckenaer, 1841) is newly recorded from Hubei Province and is considered as a senior synonym of Platnickina mneon (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906).

Zhong R, Zhong Y, Zhang H, Liu J, Liu C, Chen K, Hu C (2025) Taxonomic notes on the genus Yunohamella Yoshida, 2007 (Araneae, Theridiidae) from China, with two new species. ZooKeys 1224: 69-85. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1224.138987