Three new species of liocranid spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from China and Nepal

Abstract

Three new species of spiders belonging to the genera Oedignatha Thorell, 1881 and Paratus Simon, 1898 of the family Liocranidae Simon, 1897 are described from China and Nepal: Oedignatha shaanxi sp. nov. (female only; Shaanxi, China), Paratus bagmati sp. nov. (male only; Bagmati, Nepal), and P. ledong sp. nov. (both sexes; Hainan, China). In addition, Liocranidae is reported from Nepal for the first time.

One new genus and four new species of Liocranidae Simon, 1897 (Arachnida, Araneae) from China and Vietnam

“…Terminology and taxonomic descriptions follow Deeleman-Reinhold (2001) , Sankaran (2022) , Chu et al (2023) and Lu et al (2023) .…”

“… Koppe resembles Oedignatha Thorell, 1881 (cf. Figs 1 , 2 and Deeleman-Reinhold 2001 : 261, figs 348–374; Chu et al 2023 : 178, fig. 2A–D) by having massive chelicerae (Fig.…”

“… Liocranidae Simon, 1897, also known as spiny-legged sac spiders, are free-living, ground-dwelling hunters ( Gündüz and Allahverdi 2018 ; Dippenaar-Schoeman et al 2021 ; Lu et al 2023 ), currently containing 35 genera and 338 species ( WSC 2023 ). Liocranid spiders are distributed worldwide and live in a variety of ecosystems, including forests, intertidal zones, savannas, grasslands and even in desert regions ( Dippenaar-Schoeman et al 2021 ; Chu et al 2023 ). They are small to medium-sized spiders, whose body length ranges from 3 to 15 mm , with a highly variable habitus ( Jocqué and Dippenaar-Schoeman 2006 ; Dippenaar-Schoeman et al 2021 ).…”