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Issue: Vol. 9 No. 1: February 2026
Type: Article
Published: 2026-02-25
DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.9.1.6
Page range: 45-55
Abstract views: 115
PDF downloaded: 4

First pholcommatine cobweb spider from Eocene Rovno amber, with a delimitation of the subfamily Pholcommatinae (Araneae: Theridiidae)

Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str., 123, Moscow 117647, Russia
Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya Str., 123, Moscow 117647, Russia; Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia
Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Portovaya Str., 18, Magadan 68500, Russia; Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
Natural History Museum of Denmark, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
Rovno amber Eocene Theridiidae Pholcommatinae relimitation trichobothrial base hooded bothria Araneae

Abstract

Rovnopholcomma wunderlichi gen. et sp. nov. is described from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine). The new genus is the closest relative of Succinura Wunderlich, 2008, known from the Eocene Baltic (Gdańsk Bay), Danish and Bitterfeld ambers. The controversial theridiid subfamily Pholcommatinae Simon, 1894 is here delimited and divided into two tribes: 1) Pholcommatini Simon, 1894, which includes the extant genus Pholcomma Thorell, 1869 and eight extinct genera, all known from the Eocene of Europe; and 2) Theonoini Simon, 1894, which includes the extant genera Theonoe Simon, 1881, Carniella Thaler & Steinberger, 1988 and Robertus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1879. One of the key diagnostic characters for the newly delimited Pholcommatinae is the presence of hooded trichobothrial bases, a unique feature within the family Theridiidae.

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