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...

Systematic placement of the enigmatic genus Timesius Simon, 1879 (Opiliones, Laniatores, Nomoclastidae), with description of a new species from the Colombian Andes

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Systematic placement of the enigmatic genus Timesius Simon, 1879 (Opiliones, Laniatores, Nomoclastidae), with description of a new species from the Colombian Andes

Abstract 

The enigmatic monotypic genus Timesius Simon, 1879, hitherto assigned to Stygnidae Simon, 1879, is redescribed and its phylogenetic position inferred upon morphological and molecular evidence, resulting in its reallocation to the family Nomoclastidae Roewer, 1943. The type material of Timesius vesicularis (Gervais, 1844), long presumed lost, was rediscovered, and is hereby redescribed and illustrated. Also, a new species, Timesius paramuno sp. nov., is described based on specimens collected in the Páramo ecosystem in the Central Cordillera, Colombia. Timesius vesicularis can be readily distinguished by having two long spines on area III of the dorsal scutum (two short tubercles in T. paramuno sp. nov.) and small whitish-yellow granules on the ocularium and dorsal scutum (vestigial whitish-yellow granules in T. paramuno). 

Damron, Brittany & Moreno-González, Jairo A. & pinto da rocha, Ricardo. (2025). Systematic placement of the enigmatic genus Timesius Simon, 1879 (Opiliones, Laniatores, Nomoclastidae), with description of a new species from the Colombian Andes. 
Zootaxa. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub: F6B8CFA9-BFD7-4DCF-B198-2FC3378FB637