Abstract
Conflicting character evidence and a scarcity of male specimens has historically made placement of the spider subfamily Penestominae Simon problematic. The Penestominae was recently removed from the family Eresidae and promoted to family rank based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study; a complementary taxonomic revision of the Penestomidae is presented here. Penestomidae contains a single genus, Penestomus Simon, 1902. The genus Wajane Lehtinen, 1967 was previously included in the Penestominae, and distinguished from Penestomus based on the lack of a cribellum. Wajane is, in fact, cribellate, and is here synonymized with Penestomus New synonymy. Nine Penestomus species are recognized: four species are redescribed (P. planus Simon, 1902, P. croeseri Dippenaar-Schoeman, 1989, P. stilleri (Dippenaar-Schoeman, 1989), new combination, and P. armatus (Lehtinen, 1967)) new combination, and five species are newly described (P. egazini sp. nov., P. kruger sp. nov., P. montanus sp. nov., P. prendinii sp. nov., and P. zulu sp. nov.). Male specimens are rare in collections; only P. egazini, P. montanus, and P. armatus are known from males, and only P. armatus is unknown from females. A dichotomous key to the species is provided. Data elements in this work have been disseminated across multiple electronic venues, including images on Morphbank, distribution data exposed through GBIF and explorable using Google Earth, new nomenclatural acts registered with ZooBank, and species pages on the Encyclopedia of Life. Where available, species descriptions include links to molecular sequence data on GenBank.References
Agosti, D. & Egloff, W. (2009) Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research
Notes, 2, 53. doi:10.1186/1756-0500-2-53.
Arzberger, P., Schroeder, P., Beaulieu, A., Bowker, G., Casey, K., Laaksonen, L., Moorman, D., Uhlir, P. & Wouters, P.
(2004) Promoting access to public research data for scientific, economic, and social development. Data Science Journal, 3, 135–152.
Bosselaers, J. & Jocqué, R. (2000) Studies in Corinnidae: transfer of four genera and description of the female of
Lessertina mutica Lawrence 1942. Tropical Zoology, 13, 305–325.
Coddington, J. A. (1983) A temporary slide mount allowing precise manipulation of small structures. Verhandlungen
naturwissenschaften vereins Hamburg (NF), 26, 291–292.
Coddington, J. A. (1990) Ontogeny and homology in the male palpus of orb-weaving spiders and their relatives, with
comments on phylogeny (Araneoclada: Araneoidea, Deinopoidea). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 496, 1–
52.
Coddington, J. A. & Levi, H. W. (1991) Systematics and evolution of spiders (Araneae). Annual Review of Ecology and
Systematics, 22, 565–592.
Costello, M. J. (2009) Motivating online publication of data. BioScience, 59, 418–427.
Dippenaar-Schoeman, A. S. (1989) The African species of the subfamily Penestominae (Araneae: Eresidae): with
descriptions of two new species. Phytophylactica, 21, 131–134.
Dippenaar-Schoeman, A. S. (2002) Baboon and trapdoor spiders of southern Africa: an identification manual. Plant
Protection Research Institute Handbook no. 13. Agricultureal Research Council, Pretoria, 128 pp.
Dippenaar, A. S. & Meyer, M. E. P. (1980) On the species of the African genus Ammoxenus (Araneae: Ammoxenidae),
with decriptions of two new species. Journal of the Entomological Society of South Africa, 43, 41–49.
Eysenbach, G. (2006) Citation advantage of open access articles. PLOS Biology, 4, e157. DOI: 10.1371/
journal.pbio.0040157.
Gallon, R. C. (2002) Revision of the African genera Pterinochilus and Eucratoscelus (Araneae, Theraphosidae,
Harpactirinae) with description of two new genera. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society, 12, 201–232.
Gewin, V. (2002) All living things, online. Nature, 418, 362–363.
Godfray, C. J., Clark, B. R., Kitching, R. L., Mayo, S. J. & Scoble, M. J. (2007) The web and the structure of taxonomy.
Systematic Biology, 56, 943–955.
Griswold, C. E. (1990) A revision and phylogenetic analysis of the spider subfamily Phyxelidinae (Araneae,
Amaurobiidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 196, 1–206.
Griswold, C. E. (1991a) Cladistic biogeography of Afromontane spiders. Australian Systematic Botany, 4, 73–89.
Griswold, C. E. (1991b) A revision and phylogenetic analysis of the spider genus Machadonia Lehtinen (Araneae,
Lycosoidea). Entomologica Scandinavica, 22, 305–351.
Griswold, C. E. (1993) Investigations into the phylogeny of lycosoid spiders and their kin (Arachnida: Araneae:
Lycosoidea). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 539, 1–39.
Griswold, C. E. (1994) A revision and phylogenetic analysis of the spider genus Phanotea Simon (Araneae, Lycosoidea).
Sciences Zoologiques, Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, 273, 1–83.
Griswold, C. E. (2001) A monograph of the living world genera and Afrotropical species of cyatholipid spiders
(Araneae, Orbiculariae, Araneoidea, Cyatholipidae). Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, 26, 1–251.
Griswold, C. E., Coddington, J. A., Hormiga, G. & Scharff, N. (1998) Phylogeny of the orb-web building spiders
(Araneae, Orbiculariae: Deinopoidea, Araneoidea). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 123, 1–99.
Griswold, C. E., Coddington, J. A., Platnick, N. & Forster, R. R. (1999) Towards a phylogeny of entelegyne spiders.
Journal of Arachnology, 27, 53–63.
Griswold, C. E. & Platnick, N. I. (1987) On the first African spiders of the family Orsolobidae (Araneae, Dysderoidea).
American Museum Novitates, 2892, 1–14.
Griswold, C. E., Ramírez, M., Coddington, J. A. & Platnick, N. (2005) Atlas of phylogenetic data for entelegyne spiders
(Araneae: Araneomorphae: Entelegynae) with comments on their phylogeny. Proceedings of the California
Academy of Sciences, 56, 1–324.
Haddad, C. R. (2006) Spinotrachelas, a new genus of tracheline sac spiders from South Africa. African Invertebrates, 47,
85–93.
Haddad, C. R. (2007) A revision of the endemic South African dark sac spider genus Austrophaea Lawrence, 1952
(Araneae: Corinnidae). African Invertebrates, 48, 47–53.
Haddad, C. R. (2009) Vendaphaea, a new dark sac spider genus apparently endemic to the Soutpansberg Mountains,
South Africa (Araneae: Corinnidae). African Invertebrates, 50, 269–278.
Haddad, C. R. & Bosselaers, J. (2010) A revision of the genus Medmassa Simon, 1887 (Araneae: Corinnidae) in the
Afrotropical region. Zootaxa, 2361, 1–12.
Haddad, C. R. & Lyle, R. (2008) Three new genera of tracheline sac spiders from southern Africa (Araneae: Corinnidae).
African Invertebrates, 49, 37–76.
Haddad, C. R., Lyle, R., Bosselaers, J. & Ramírez, M. (2009) A revision of the endemic South African spider genus
Austrachelas, with its transfer to the Gallieniellidae (Arachnida: Araneae). Zootaxa, 2296, 1–38.
Holm, Å. (1979) A taxonomic study of European and east African species of the genera Pelecopsis and Trichopterna
(Araneae, Linyphiidae), with descriptions of a new genus and two new species of Pelecopsis from Kenya. Zoologica
Scripta, 8, 255–278.
House of Lords (2008) Systematics and taxonomy: follow-up. HL Paper No. 162. Her Majesty's Stationary Office
(HMSO), London, 330 pp.
Jocqué, R. (1991) A generic revision of the spider family Zodariidae (Araneae). Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History, 201, 1–160.
Jocqué, R. (1999) The new genera Procydrela and Rotundrela, sister taxa for Storenomorphinae and Cydrelinae
(Araneae: Zodariidae). Entomologica Scandinavica, 30, 225–240.
Jocqué, R. (2001) Chummidae, a new spider family (Arachnida, Araneae) from South Africa. Zoological Journal of the
Linnean Society, 254, 481–493.
Jocqué, R. (2009) Some keep it short: on the radiation in the Afrotropical spider genera Capheris and Systenoplacis
(Araneae, Zodariidae) without male pedipalp complexity increase. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology, 5, 77–148.
Lawrence, S. (2001) Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact. Nature, 411, 521. doi:10.1038/
35079151.
Lee, M. S. Y. (2000) A worrying systematic decline. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 15, 346.
Lehtinen, P. T. (1967) Classification of the cribellate spiders and some allied families. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 4,
199–468.
Miller, J. A., Carmichael, A., Ramírez, M., Spagna, J., Haddad, C. R., Řezáč, M., Johannesen, J., Král, J., Wang, X.-P. &
Griswold, C. E. (2010) Phylogeny of entelegyne spiders: Affinities of the family Penestomidae (NEW RANK),
generic phylogeny of Eresidae, and asymmetric rates of change in spinning organ evolution (Araneae, Araneoidea,
Entelegynae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 55, 786–804. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.02.021.
Penev, L., Erwin, T. L., Miller, J. A., Chavan, V., Moritz, T. & Griswold, C. E. (2009) Publication and dissemination of
datasets in taxonomy: ZooKeys working example. ZooKeys, 11, 1–8.
Platnick, N. I. (2010) The World Spider Catalog, Version 10.5. American Museum of Natural History, Available from
http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html.
Platnick, N. I. & Griffin, E. (1990) On Rastellus, a new genus of the spider family Ammoxenidae (Araneae,
Gnaphosoidea). American Museum Novitates, 2971, 1–16.
Scoble, M. J., Clark, B. R., Godfray, C. J., Kitching, I. J. & Mayo, S. J. (2007) Revisionary taxonomy in a changing elandscape.
Tijdschrift voor entomologie, 150, 305–317.
Shimodaira, H. & Hasegawa, M. (1999) Multiple comparisons of log-likelihoods with applications to phylogenetic
inference. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 16, 1114–1116.
Simon, E. (1902) Descriptions de quelques arachnides nouveaux de la section des cribellatés. Bulletin de la Société
entomologique de France, 1902, 240–243.
Simon, E. (1903) Histoire Naturelle des Araignées. Deuxième edition. Volume 2, 669–1080.
Wheeler, Q. D. (2008) The New Taxonomy. The Systematics Association Special Volume Series 76, CRC Press, Boca
Raton, 237 pp.
Wilson, E. O. (2003) The encyclopedia of life. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 77–80.