An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling

Posted by
  An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling Abstract Several wolf spiders exhibit a peculiar geographical distribution. One good example of this is Pardosa aenigmatica Tongiorgi, 1966, recently recognized in Italy and the Middle East but missing in the Balkans. A comparison of populations from the disjunctive areas revealed that they would be better described as two distinct species. As a result, here we describe Pardosa sepidehae sp. nov. The paper includes detailed descriptions and comparative illustrations of male and female copulatory organs for the newly discovered species and P. aenigmatica. Pardosa sepidehae sp. nov. is distributed in the Middle East, whereas P. aenigmatica remains endemic to the Apennine Peninsula. Adile Akpinar, Petr Dolejš "An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling," Annales Zoologici, 76(29), ...

We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria

Posted by

 


We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria

Abstract

In the present study, we review the status of the genus Mastigusa Menge, 1854 in Bulgaria. We identified two species from the country, namely M. arietina (Thorell, 1871) and M. macrophthalma (Kulczyński, 1897). This is the first record of M. arietina from Bulgaria. Furthermore, we report a male palpal polymorphism in M. arietina in the populations around the Black Sea. We also provide molecular support for our conclusions, combining newly generated DNA sequences with information available in GenBank.

Indzhov, S., Haynadzhieva, V., Střeštík, V., Dimitrov, D. & Dimitrov, D. (2025) We have two of them: A review of the genus Mastigusa (Araneae: Cybaeidae) in Bulgaria. Zootaxa, 5711 (4), 579–588. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5711.4.7