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...

Additions to the spider fauna (Araneae) of Algeria: first records of five species from the northern Sahara

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Additions to the spider fauna (Araneae) of Algeria: first records of five species from thenorthern Sahara

ABSTRACT

The spider fauna of the Algerian Sahara remains poorly studied despite its vast aridlandscapes and  unique ecological  conditions. In  this study,  we  report  five  spider  species  newlyrecorded from Algeria, based on material collected in the region of El Meghaier, n orthern Sahara. These are Rhysodromus  lepidus  (Blackwall,  1870)  (Philodromidae),Pellenes  hedjazensis  Prószyński,1993 (Salticidae), Theridion  jordanenseLevy  & Amitai, 1982 (Theridiidae), Ozyptila furcula  (Koch,1882), andThomisus zyuzini Marusik & Logunov, 1990 (both Thomisidae). Additionally, O. furcula,P. hedjazensis andT. zyuzini are recorded from Africa for the first time, and the genusRhysodromusSchick,  1965, is newly  reported  from  Algeria.  Photographs  of  the  habitus and  copulatory  organsare provided, along  with  a distribution  map  illustrating  both  known and  newly  recordedoccurrences, and notes   on the ecological conditions of the collection sites.

Dekkoumi, B., Alioua, Y. & Meddour, S. (2026) Additions to  the spider fauna (Araneae) of Algeria:first records of five species from the northern Sahara. Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics,  12 ( 01),  109–121.