In Memoriam: Giraldo Alayón García

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  In Memoriam: Giraldo Alayón García -  Photo © Facebook/National Museum of Natural History of Cuba In Memoriam: Giraldo Alayón García The arachnological community mourns the loss of Giraldo Alayón García, a Cuban zoologist whose work helped bring the spiders of Cuba and the wider Caribbean into clearer scientific view. As a researcher and curator at Cuba’s National Museum of Natural History, Dr. Alayón devoted decades to studying arachnids. His publications on spider taxonomy, evolution, and biogeography gave other researchers a stronger foundation for understanding the region’s biodiversity. He also shared that knowledge through teaching and scientific exchange far beyond Cuba. For those of us who care about taxonomy, his legacy is a reminder of the patient work behind every species description: examining specimens, recording differences, and preserving knowledge that others can build upon. His contributions will continue to guide the study of Caribbean spiders for years to ...

Description of the first continental European species of the huntsman spider Cebrennus (Araneae, Sparassidae), confirming the presence of the genus in the region

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Description of the first continental European species of the huntsman spider Cebrennus (Araneae, Sparassidae), confirming the presence of the genus in the region

Abstract

Because of its wide variety of climates and habitats, the Iberian Peninsula harbors a rich and diverse arachnological fauna, including numerous endemisms. This is especially true for habitats like arid and semiarid areas. Many of them are threatened despite containing interesting –and sometimes uncharacterised– fauna, such as the huntsman spiders in the genus Cebrennus.
Previously known to occur from North Africa to the Middle East, new sightings of these spiders in Europe have drawn attention. Here, we use morphological and molecular data to describe a new species of Cebrennus from specimens collected in eastern Spain. Additionally, we use genetic data to place the new species, C. herculis sp. n., in a phylogenetic context and speculate on the biogeographic processes that lead to its presence in Europe.
Genetic distances among individuals of C. herculis sp. n. were low for the three molecular markers analysed (COI, 18S and 28S). Our phylogenetic tree recovered the monophyly of the Iberian Cebrennus, and placed them as sister to the only African representative with genetic data available, C. rungsi. Furthermore, divergence time analysis revealed a Palaeogene-Neogene split between the Iberian lineage and C. rungsi, compatible with an allopatric speciation following one of the ancient connections between Europe and Africa landmasses.
These findings show that habitats such as arid and semiarid areas still hide new and interesting diversity, underscoring the importance of preserving them.

Domènech, M., Calatayud-Mascarell, A., Pérez-Gómez, Á., Giacomelli, M., Iglesias Baquero, A., Mojica, M., Guerrero, J. J., Arnedo, M. A., & Lozano-Fernandez, J. (2025). Description of the first continental European species of the huntsman spider Cebrennus (Araneae, Sparassidae), confirming the presence of the genus in the region. Zoologischer Anzeiger. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2025.08.005