What’s a Spider? Designation of the Neotype for the First Animal Species Ever Described, Araneus angulatus Clerck 1757 (Araneae: Araneidae)

Posted by
  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...

Two new species of the genus Nemaspela Šilhavý, 1966 (Opiliones: Nemastomatidae) from Georgian caves

Posted by

 


Two new species of the genus Nemaspela Šilhavý, 1966 (Opiliones: Nemastomatidae) from Georgian caves

Abstract

Two new cavernicolous harvestmen species, Nemaspela sakavria sp. nov. from Sakavria Cave and Nemaspela sakinule sp. nov. from Sakinule (Nikortsminda) and Melia (Nikortsminda) caves, are described from the Racha karst massif in the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region of western Georgia. A differential diagnosis is provided in relation to morphologically similar species, as well as a key for the identification of species of the genus Nemaspela. This study provides the first molecular genetic data for the genus Nemaspela. Pairwise genetic distances for the COI-5P barcode region showed clear differentiation between the two new and one unidentified Nemaspela species examined.

Modebadze, N., Barjadze, S. & Karaman, I. (2026) Two new species of the genus Nemaspela Šilhavý, 1966 (Opiliones: Nemastomatidae) from Georgian caves. Zootaxa, 5853 (4), 545–560. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5853.4.5