Heteroonops (Araneae, Oonopidae) spiders from Hispaniola: the discovery of ten new species

Abstract

The Caribbean biodiversity hotspot harbors vast reserves of undiscovered species. A large-scale inventory of Caribbean arachnids (CarBio) is uncovering new species across the arachnid tree of life, and allowing inference of the evolutionary history that has generated this diversity. Herein we describe ten new species of Heteroonops (Oonopidae, or goblin spiders), from Hispaniola: H. scapulasp. nov., H. jurassicussp. nov., H. aylinalegreaesp. nov., H. verrucasp. nov., H. renebarbaisp. nov., H. yumasp. nov., H. carlosviquezisp. nov., H. gabrielsantosisp. nov., H. solanllycarreroaesp. nov. and H. constanzasp. nov. The occurrence of the pantropical type species Heteroonops spinimanus (Simon, 1891) is reported and new localities are given for: H. validus (Bryant, 1948), H. vega (Platnick & Dupérré, 2009) and H. castelloides (Platnick & Dupérré, 2009). Molecular phylogenies indicate substantial genetic divergence separating these taxa. This work adds to evidence that the depth of diversity in the Caribbean biodiversity hotspot is particularly striking for tiny taxa living in leaf litter.

A new genus and two new species of oonopid spiders from Tibet, China (Araneae, Oonopidae)

“…Oonopidae Simon, 1890 is a diverse spider family with 1884 extant described species in 114 genera (WSC 2021). They are small spiders (usually < 3 mm), generally living in leaf litter (e.g., Dupérré et al 2020), in canopies (e.g., Fannes et al 2008;Tong and Li 2011), caves (e.g., Chamberlin and Ivie 1938;Tong and Li 2013). Some are termite nest inquilines (Benoit 1964) or even ant-mimics (e.g., Platnick and Dupérré 2011;Sun et al 2019).…”