An unusually complex venom system in araneophagous palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae)

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  An unusually complex venom system in araneophagous palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae) Venoms are key adaptive traits in many animal lineages, yet their structural and functional diversity in spiders remains poorly investigated. Here, we present an initial characterization of the venom system of palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae), a family specialized in hunting other spiders. Using micro-computed tomography, we found that the venom glands of the single species examined, Palpimanus gibbulus , exhibit a complex, multi-lobed morphology that is unusual among araneomorph spiders. Proteo-transcriptomic analyses of two Palpimanus venoms ( P. gibbulus and P. cyprius ) revealed highly diverse putative toxin repertoires comprising hundreds of peptides and proteins, including numerous novel putative neurotoxins, cytotoxins, enzymes, and allergens. Five major families of cysteine-rich palpitoxins were identified as the dominant putative neurotoxic components in both species, displaying con...

Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

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Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

Abstract

Anyphaena is a diverse spider genus with 66 species distributed in North America. This is the type genus of the family Anyphaenidae and comprises five species groups (accentuata, celer, pacifica, pectorosa and porta), with the celer group having the highest species richness. Here, we conducted an extensive revision of Anyphaena specimens from several North American spider collections, as part of a comprehensive study of the accentuata and celer species groups in the region. As main results, we emended the descriptions with detailed information for male and female genitalia for two the previously proposed species of accentuata group and thirty-two previously proposed species of celer group from North America and describe eight new species from Mexico: A. brescoviti sp. nov., A. estriada sp. nov., A. mateoi sp. nov., A. martinezae sp. nov., A. monserratae sp. nov., A. platnicki sp. nov., A. reynae sp. nov. and A. sundevalli sp. nov. Furthermore, we provide new geographical records for A. subgibba O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896, A. dixiana (Chamberlin & Woodbury, 1929) and A. arbida Platnick, 1974 from Mexico, and A. subgibba from Panama. We provide photographs of habitus and genitalia for the previous described species. We also provide updated distribution maps and an identification key for all the North American species of the celer group.

García-García, M. Ángel, Ibarra-Núñez, G., Sánchez-García, J.A. & Jiménez, M.L. (2026) Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species. Zootaxa, 5788 (1), 1–106. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5788.1.1