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...

The revision and phylogenetic position of Hippasa bifasciata Buchar, 1997 (Araneae, Lycosidae)

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The revision and phylogenetic position of Hippasa bifasciata Buchar, 1997 (Araneae, Lycosidae)

Abstract

Background

Hogna Simon, 1885 is the second-largest genus in the family Lycosidae after Pardosa C. L. Koch, 1847 (517 species), including 232 species so far. This genus has a cosmopolitan distribution spanning multiple continents. However, only four species (Hogna rubetra (Schenkel, 1963), Hogna trunca Yin, Bao & Zhang, 1996, Hogna jiafui Peng, Yin, Zhang & Kim, 1997 and Hogna arborea Lo, Wei & Cheng, 2023) have been recorded in China.

New information

A new combination, Hogna bifasciata (Buchar, 1997), comb. nov. (from Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in south-western China), is proposed with both morphological and molecular evidence. Detailed morphological descriptions, photographs, scanning electron micrographs and a distribution map are provided. This species is distinguished from congeners by the unique structure of the female epigyne and its somatic pattern. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest H. bifasciata (Buchar, 1997) and all analysed Hogna species cluster together within the subfamily Lycosinae and the species is sister to the group, including Hogna frondicola Emerton, 1885, Hogna carolinensis Walckenaer, 1805 and Hogna crispipes L. Koch, 1877.


Wu C, Tao Z, Wang Y, Luo Y (2025) The revision and phylogenetic position of Hippasa bifasciata Buchar, 1997 (Araneae, Lycosidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e166495. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e166495