A Remarkable Discovery: Exploring a Rare Eresus and Spider Wasp Interaction

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  Photo Credit: © Antonino Rametta . All photographs are used with permission. No part of these images may be reproduced, distributed, or used in any form without the prior written permission of the photographer. A Remarkable Discovery: Exploring a Rare Eresus and Spider Wasp Interaction One of the most rewarding aspects of maintaining Arácnido Taxonomy is hearing from naturalists and photographers around the world who take the time to share their discoveries. Every so often, an email arrives that immediately captures your attention. Not because it claims to rewrite what we know about biodiversity, but because it documents something that very few people have the opportunity to witness. Recently, I was contacted by a naturalist in Sicily who shared a series of exceptionally high-quality photographs of a female ladybird spider ( Eresus ) during what appeared to be an interaction with a spider wasp. Along with the images came a simple question: "Could this be scientifically import...

Velvet Revolution: integrative taxonomy of South Caucasian Eresus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae, Eresidae), with five new species

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Velvet Revolution: integrative taxonomy of South Caucasian Eresus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae, Eresidae), with five new species 

Abstract

This study is part of a series devoted to the systematic revision of the velvet spider genus Eresus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae: Eresidae) in Western Asia, and represents a milestone toward understanding the biodiversity of this group in the South Caucasus and adjacent territories. Currently, only three species of Eresus are known from the South Caucasus, although the presence of E. kollari Rossi, 1846 is highly questionable. Integrating both morphological data and COI barcoding results, we herein describe and illustrate five new species: E. albimarginatus Seropian and Zamani, sp. nov. (♂), E. deminutus Seropian and Bulbulashvili, sp. nov. (♂), E. gulliver Seropian and Arsenashvili, sp. nov. (♂♀), E. megobroba Seropian and Bulbulashvili, sp. nov. (♂), all from Georgia, and E. tigrani Zamani, Seropian, Zarikian and Szűts, sp. nov. (♂♀) from Armenia and Azerbaijan (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). An updated phylogeny, incorporating 23 newly generated sequences, revealed eight distinct maternal lineages, four of which are formally recognized as species-groups. Previous South Caucasian records of E. kollari and E. tristis Kroneberg, 1875 are considered misidentifications and are, therefore, rejected. We provide a map of the known localities of South Caucasian Eresus species, based on examined material and data from social networking platforms.


Seropian, A., Zamani, A., Bulbulashvili, N., Arsenashvili, E., Zarikian, N., & Szűts, T. (2025). Velvet Revolution: Integrative taxonomy of South Caucasian Eresus Walckenaer, 1805 (Araneae, Eresidae), with five new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 205(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf169