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...

A review of Idiommata Ausserer, 1871 (Mygalomorphae: Barychelidae), with the description of a related new genus and new species of giant Australian brush-footed spiders

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A review of Idiommata Ausserer, 1871 (Mygalomorphae: Barychelidae), with the description of a related new genus and new species of giant Australian brush-footed spiders

Abstract

The barychelid genus Idiommata Ausserer, 1871 is reviewed: the type species Idiommata blackwalli O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1870 is diagnosed and variability of characters in males discussed. Idiommata is rediagnosed to include only I. blackwalli and I. scintillans (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918), which lack intercheliceral peg setae. The female paralectotype of Idiommata scintillans is placed in Synothele Simon, 1908 and described as a new species, Synothele xintillans sp. nov., from South Australia. A new genus, Zidiommata gen. nov., is described for I. fusca L. Koch, 1874 (for which males are described), I. iridescens (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918) and two new species, Z. simonmaraisi sp. nov. and Z. steveirwini sp. nov., all of which have intercheliceral pegs and are found in eastern Australia.

Raven, R.J. (2026) A review of Idiommata Ausserer, 1871 (Mygalomorphae: Barychelidae), with the description of a related new genus and new species of giant Australian brush-footed spiders. Zootaxa, 5821 (2), 151–175. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5821.2.1