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...

Revision of the Elusive Harvestmen Genus Discocyrtulus Roewer, 1927 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Gonyleptidae): Investigating the Presumed Northeastern Brazilian Discocyrtus-Like Relatives

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Revision of the Elusive Harvestmen Genus Discocyrtulus Roewer, 1927 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Gonyleptidae): Investigating the Presumed Northeastern Brazilian Discocyrtus-Like Relatives

ABSTRACT

A maximum parsimony analysis based on morphological characters (23 taxa; 98 characters; 1951 scorings) was conducted to test the monophyly of Discocyrtulus Roewer, 1927, and to assess its phylogenetic relationships within Gonyleptidae. The results recover the species currently assigned to Discocyrtulus as phylogenetically distant from Pachylinae sensu stricto and nested instead within Discocyrtus sensu stricto+, forming a clade together with Discocyrtus moraesianus Mello-Leitão, 1923. Accordingly, Discocyrtulus is removed from Pachylinae Sørensen, 1884, and left without subfamilial assignment. As a result, Discocyrtulus now comprises Discocyrtulus crenulatus (Roewer, 1913) comb. nov., Discocyrtulus marginalis Roewer, 1929, and Discocyrtulus moraesianus (Mello-Leitão, 1923) comb. nov. Based on the examination of type material, the following species-level synonymies are proposed: Heteropucrolia nigrosulcata Mello-Leitão, 1932 syn. nov., and Discocyrtulus bresslaui Roewer, 1927 syn. nov. (type species of Discocyrtulus) of Discocyrtus crenulatus Roewer, 1913; Discocyrtus melanacanthus Mello-Leitão, 1932 syn. nov. of Discocyrtulus marginalis Roewer, 1929; and Discocyrtus coxalis Roewer, 1929 syn. nov. of Discocyrtus moraesianus Mello-Leitão, 1923. The genus Heteropucrolia Mello-Leitão, 1932 is removed from the synonymy of Discocyrtus and transferred to Discocyrtulus. We also designate herein lectotypes of D. bresslaui and D. marginalis. Issues concerning the type localities of Discocyrtulus marginalis and Heteropucrolia nigrosulcata are also addressed, challenging previous records of Discocyrtulus from north-eastern Brazil and clarifying historical misinterpretations of species distributions.

Saraiva, V., Hara, M. R., & DaSilva, M. B. (2026). Revision of the Elusive Harvestmen Genus Discocyrtulus Roewer, 1927 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Gonyleptidae): Investigating the Presumed Northeastern Brazilian Discocyrtus-Like Relatives. Austral Entomology, 65(3), e70090. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.70090