A new cave-dwelling Centromerus from Sardinia (Araneae: Linyphiidae)

Abstract

Centromerus marciai sp. n. is described on both sexes on specimens collected in a karstic cave in the province of Nuoro, North-eastern Sardinia, Italy. Differences with other species of the genus Centromerus Dahl, 1886 occurring in Sardinia are pointed out.

Three new species and new records of the genus Centromerus (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Italy

“…The taxonomy and biogeography of species of Centromerus in Italy has long been neglected by modern arachnologists; most of the local species were studied and described by Brignoli in the 1970s (Pantini & Isaia 2019). Only in the last few years has this genus been revised, with the recent discovery of new species (Bosmans & Colombo 2015;Bosmans & Gasparo 2015). The new records reported herein and the description of a further three new species (and a potential fourth), suggest that our knowledge regarding the Italian fauna of Centromerus, and the family Linyphiidae in general, is deficient.…”

“…It currently includes 87 species/subspecies (WSC, 2020), 65 of which are present in Europe (Nentwig et al 2020). Along the Italian Peninsula, 23 species of Centromerus are currently known: C. arcanus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1873), C. bonaeviae Brignoli, 1979, C. brevipalpus (Menge, 1866, C. capucinus (Simon, 1884), C. cavernarum (L. Koch, 1872, C. cottarellii Brignoli, 1979, C. incilium (L. Koch, 1881, C. isaiai , C. leruthi Fage, 1933 (Simon, 1884), C. marciai Bosmans & Gasparo, 2015, C. pabulator (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1875, C. pasquinii Brignoli, 1971, C. puddui Brignoli, 1979 (Simon, 1884), C. sellarius (Simon, 1884), C. semiater (L. Koch, 1879), C. serratus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1875), C. silvicola (Kulczyński, 1887), C. subalpinus Lessert, 1907, C. subcaecus Kulczyński, 1914 (Simon, 1884) and C. sylvaticus (Blackwall, 1841). In addition, three more species are recorded, but considered dubious European Journal of Taxonomy 660: 1- 23 ISSN 2118-9773 https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2020.660 www.europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu 2020 • Ballarin F. & Pantini P.…”

Contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of Morocco (Arachnida: Araneae) – First note – On new records of cave spiders

“…For identification we relied on several publications and reference websites: Simon (1909, 1911), Machado (1940), Denis (1954, 1961), de Blauwe (1980), Bosmans (1986, 2006a, 2006b, 2021), Hormiga & Ribera (1990), Rheims & Brescovit (2004), Benhadi-Marín et al (2013), Tanasevitch (2014), Barrientos et al (2019, 2020), Breitling (2020), Huber (2022), Nentwig et al (2023), Oger (2023), etc. The taxonomic status follows the WSC (2023).…”

“…Hence, it is reasonable to assume that the specimens found in this cave of the Talassemtane National Park belong to a new species. The terminology of genital structures follows that of Bosmans (1986), based on Merret (1963) and Millidge (1977).…”

A synthesis on cave-dwelling spiders in Europe

“…In the last few years, several new species have been described in southern Europe (e.g., Bosmans & Gasparo, ; Deltshev & Ćurčić, ; Gasparo, ; Isaia, Mammola, Mazzuca, Arnedo, & Pantini, ; Isaia & Pantini, , ; Mammola, Hormiga, Arnedo, & Isaia, ; Pavlek & Ribera, ; Ribera & López‐Pancorbo, ; Ribera & Mas, ; Wang & Li, , ; Wu, Wang, Zheng, & Li, ), including the first European record of Symphytognathidae (Cardoso & Scharff, ). Studies on European subterranean spiders continue to gain momentum, and it is reasonable to expect that new species will be discovered in the future, as proven by the accumulation curve of species descriptions, which is far from reaching the asymptote (Figure ).…”