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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)

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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...

Extreme ocularium reduction in Gonyleptidae: A new genus of Tricommatinae from the northeastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Opiliones: Laniatores)

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

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The genus Kimula (Opiliones: Laniatores: Kimulidae) in Puerto Rico, Greater Antilles

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Description of a new species of the genus Potosa Goodnight & Goodnight, 1947 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Stygnopsidae: Karosinae) from Hidalgo, Mexico

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Systematic placement of the enigmatic genus Timesius Simon, 1879 (Opiliones, Laniatores, Nomoclastidae), with description of a new species from the Colombian Andes

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Systematic revision of the South American “Nuncia” (Opiliones, Laniatores, Triaenonychidae)

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Uncovering the worldwide footprint of an ancient relictual lineage of harvestmen: new genus and species of Buemarinoidae from Australia (Opiliones: Laniatores: Triaenonychoidea)

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