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...

Contribution to the zodariid spider fauna (Araneae: Zodariidae) of Algeria

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Contribution to the zodariid spider fauna (Araneae: Zodariidae) of Algeria

ABSTRACT

Within the spider family Zodariidae, only four of the 90 recognised genera have been recorded from Algeria, encompassing a total of 19 species. In this study, we describe and illustrate a new species, Zodarion bifidum sp. n. (♂), from Biskra Province, northern Algeria. Additionally, we provide the first descriptions of the males of Z. bicoloripes (Denis) and Z. dispar Denis. Finally, we document the first records of Z. cesari Pekár and Acanthinozodium cirrisulcatum Denis from Algeria, and propose the synonymisation of Z. punicum Denis syn. n. with Z. pusio Simon.

Shafaie, S., Pekár, S., Korba, J., Doumandji, S., & Berretima, W. (2025). Contribution to the zodariid spider fauna (Araneae: Zodariidae) of Algeria. Journal of Natural History, 59(25–28), 1895–1916. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2025.2501589