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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...

First characterization of copulatory mechanics in camel spiders (Solifugae) using microCT

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Micro-CT analysis reveals directional genital asymmetry in a mygalomorph spider with two different sperm-storage organs (Araneae: Mecicobothriidae)

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Solitary Confinement: Surprising Post-Copulatory Behaviour of an Australian Species of Wishbone Spider (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Aname)

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Homotypic assortative mating is consistent across temporal scales in the spider Mecynogea lemniscata (Araneidae)

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First report of arm-span competition in buthid scorpions: male-male contest in Tityus cf. rosenbergi Pocock, 1898

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The role of intraspecific mechanical and chemical signaling for mate and sexual recognition in male Tityus pusillus (Scorpiones, Buthidae)

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Variability in Precipitation Weakens Sexual Selection for Nuptial Gifts in Spiders

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Males discriminate between substrate-borne cues of conspecific females based on age and mating status in the jumping spider, Habronattus brunneus

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Simulating a hybridization event of a range-expanding sexual cannibal (Argiope bruennichi)

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Mosaic Evolution of Grasping and Genital Traits in Two Sympatric Scorpion Species with Reproductive Interference

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