Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 4651 No. 1: 2 Aug. 2019
Type: Article
Published: 2019-08-02
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4651.1.7
Page range: 114–124
Abstract views: 81
PDF downloaded: 2

Three new species of the spider family Pholcidae (Arachnida: Araneae) from Taita-Taveta, Kenya

College of Life Science, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning, China
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, P.O. Box 40658–00100, Nairobi, Kenya
National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, P.O. Box 40658–00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Araneae taxonomy morphology biodiversity Pholcinae Smeringopinae

Abstract

Only nine species of the spider family Pholcidae C.L. Koch, 1850 are endemic in Kenya. In this study, three new species from Taita-Taveta County, southern Kenya are reported. They belong to two genera of the pholcid spiders: Buitinga qingyuani Yao & Li sp. nov. (male, female), B. wamitii Yao & Li sp. nov. (male), and Smeringopus voi Yao & Li sp. nov. (male, female). All material studied is deposited in the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

References

  1. Dimitrov, D., Astrin, J.J. & Huber, B.A. (2013) Pholcid spider molecular systematics revisited, with new insights into the biogeography and the evolution of the group. Cladistics, 29, 132–146.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2012.00419.x

    Eberle, J., Dimitrov, D., Valdez-Mondragón, A. & Huber, B.A. (2018) Microhabitat change drives diversification in pholcid spiders. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 18, 141.

    https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1244-8

    ESRI (2002) ArcView GIS 3.2. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands, California. Available from: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcview/ (accessed 6 June2019)

    Huber, B.A. (2003) High species diversity in one of the dominant groups of spiders in East African montane forests (Araneae: Pholcidae: Buitinga n. gen., Spermophora Hentz). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 137, 555–619.

    https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1096-3642.2003.00053.x

    Huber, B.A. (2012) Revision and cladistic analysis of the Afrotropical endemic genus Smeringopus Simon, 1890 (Araneae: Pholcidae). Zootaxa, 3461 (1), 1–138.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3461.1.1

    Huber, B.A. & Warui, C.M. (2012) East African pholcid spiders: an overview, with descriptions of eight new species (Araneae, Pholcidae). European Journal of Taxonomy, 29, 1–44.

    https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2012.29

    Khmelik, V.V., Kozub, D. & Glazunov, A. (2006) Helicon Focus 3.10.3. Available from: http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html/ (accessed 6 June 2019)

    Kraus, O. (1957) Araneenstudien 1. Pholcidae (Smeringopodinae, Ninetinae). Senckenbergiana Biologica, 38 (3–4), 217–243.

    Simon, E. (1890) Étude sur les arachnides de l’Yemen. Annales de la Societé entomologique de France, 6, 77–124.

    Simon, E. (1893) Histoire Naturelle des Araignées. 2e Edit. 1 (2). Roret, Paris, 233 pp. [pp. 256–488]

    Timm, H. (1976) Die Bedeutung von Genitalstrukturen für die Klärung systematischer Fragen bei Zitterspinnen (Arachnida: Araneae: Pholcidae). Entomologica Germanica, 3 (1–2), 69–76.

    World Spider Catalog (2019) World spider catalog, version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. Available from: http://wsc.nmbe.ch/ (accessed 6 June 2019)