What’s a Spider? Designation of the Neotype for the First Animal Species Ever Described, Araneus angulatus Clerck 1757 (Araneae: Araneidae)

Posted by
  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...

New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator

Posted by

 


New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator

Abstract

The present communication deals with the recording of Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) from the Afrotropical part of Oman (Dhofar region). This species is recorded from Southern Oman for the second time. A brief description of the morphology of S. ferox is provided, along with notes on its predator, the tarantula hawk Hemipepsis heros (Guérin-Méneville, 1849) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae).

Al-Jahdhami, A. A., Al-Hashmi, S. A., Albusaidi, A. H., Al-Riamy, A. S. W., Al-Naabi, H. S., & Al-Hadhrami, M. A. (2025). New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator. EntomoBrasilis, 18, e1124. https://doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v18.e1124