Testing the Limits of Morphology: A Comprehensive Morphometric Study of the Sister Lineages Lasiocyano Galleti-Lima, Hamilton, Borges and Guadanucci, 2023 and Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Theraphosidae, Mygalomorphae)

Posted by
  Testing the Limits of Morphology: A Comprehensive Morphometric Study of the Sister Lineages Lasiocyano Galleti-Lima, Hamilton, Borges and Guadanucci, 2023 and Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Theraphosidae, Mygalomorphae) ABSTRACT Morphological conservatism and homoplasy pose significant challenges for the systematics of mygalomorph spiders, limiting the number of reliable morphological characters available for species identification, particularly in Theraphosidae. Closely related taxa frequently display high phenotypic similarity, which limits the resolution of morphology-based approaches. In this study, we conducted the most extensive morphometric analysis to date within Theraphosidae, with the objective of explicitly testing how much morphological information is retained within the  Lasiocyano sazimai  and  Lasiodora  lineage. We applied a morphometric framework combining linear morphometry and geometric morphometry, including multivariate statistics, discrimina...

One new species of Drapetisca Menge, 1866 (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Gele Mountain, Chongqing, China

Posted by

 


One new species of Drapetisca Menge, 1866 (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Gele Mountain, Chongqing, China

Abstract

Background

The genus Drapetisca comprises 7 species distributed in Canada, Central Asia, China, Caucasus, Europe, Japan, Russia (Europe to the Far East), and the USA, out of which five species have been recorded in China (World Spider Catalog 2025). The males and females of Drapetisca can be distinguished from all other Linyphiidae genera by the palpal distal arm of the paracymbium anchor-shaped in the retrolateral view and the protruding epigyne without a scape.

New information

While examining Linyphiidae Blackwall, 1859 specimens from Gele Mountain in Chongqing, we discovered a new species of the genus Drapetisca, D. dentata sp. nov. Detailed descriptions, photographs of copulatory organs and somatic features, and a distribution map are provided.

Shi H-X, Liu Z-Y, Irfan M, Wang L-Y (2026) One new species of Drapetisca Menge, 1866 (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Gele Mountain, Chongqing, China. Biodiversity Data Journal 14: e180901. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.14.e180901