Revision of the <i>Histopona italica</i> group (Araneae: Agelenidae), with the description of two new species

Abstract

During a large survey of agelenid spiders from different private and museum collections, a closer examination of material from all over Italy (including type material and fresh material) previously identified as Histopona italica Brignoli 1977, disclosed two new species for science, both belonging to the italica group. Based on the results of the present work, we describe Histopona leonardoi sp. n. and H. fioni sp. n. and revise the distribution pattern of H. italica group in Italy and Switzerland. Drawings and photographs of relevant structures and a table summary of the diagnostic characters allowing a fast separation of the species are provided.

Phylogeny and taxonomy of European funnel-web spiders of theTegenaria−Malthonicacomplex (Araneae: Agelenidae) based upon morphological and molecular data

“…As outgroup Amaurobius ferox (Walckenaer, 1830), Amaurobiidae, was used. Besides the ingroup in focus ( Malthonica , Tegenaria ) we scored for Agelena labyrinthica (Clerck, ), Allagelena gracilens (C. L. Koch, ), both belonging to Agelenini, Maimuna cretica (Kulczyński, 1903), Maimuna vestita (C. L. Koch, ), Textrix caudata L. Koch, and Textrix denticulata (Olivier, 1789), all belonging to Textricini, Histopona hauseri (Brignoli, ), Histopona torpida (C. L. Koch, ), Histopona fioni Bolzern et al ., , and all known Aterigena species to complete the group Tegenariini.…”

Description of Histopona kurkai sp. n. with new data for the genus from the Balkan Peninsula (Arachnida, Araneae: Agelenidae)

“…Diagnosis. The new species has somatic characters (notched trochanters, patellae with dorsal spines only) that correspond well to those of the genus Histopona, and belongs to torpida species group according to Deeleman-Reinhold (1983) and Bolzern et al (2013). Among species of this group, it bears close resemblance to H. vignai Brignoli, 1980, but the male of Histopona kurkai sp.…”

Taxonomy, ecology and conservation of the cave-dwelling spider Histopona palaeolithica, with the description of H. petrovi sp. nov. (Araneae: Agelenidae)

“…Histopona palaeolithica and H. petrovi sp. nov. exhibit somatic characters that justify their genus placement in Histopona (see Deeleman-Reinhold 1983;Bolzern et al 2013). These include eye arrangement, elongated sternum-i.e.…”

“…The genus Histopona Thorell, 1869 (Araneae: Agelenidae) currently includes 22 species primarily distributed in the Central-Eastern Mediterranean basin (World Spider Catalog-WSC 2019). According to the latest overview on the European subterranean spiders (Mammola et al 2018), at least 15 of these species exhibit preference for the subterranean conditions, being occasionally or exclusively found in caves, crevices and similar habitats (Brignoli 1971(Brignoli , 1972(Brignoli , 1977a(Brignoli , 1977bDeeleman-Reinhold 1983;Deltshev 1978;Gasparo 2005;Deltshev & Petrov 2008;Bolzern et al 2013). Such ecological preference parallels the appearance of morphological adaptations to the subterranean conditions (troglomorphism; Christiansen 2012), which in Histopona primarily pertains to size, loss of pigmentation and eye regression (Deeleman-Reinhold 1983).…”