THE SOUTH AMERICAN CASTIANEIRINAE. I. 
THE GENUS PSELLOCOPTUS 
(ARANEAE: CLUBIONIDAE)* 
By Jonathan Reiskind 
Department of Zoology, 
University of Florida 
Gainesville, Florida 32601 
The Castianeirinae is a group of ground running spiders many of 
whom mimic ants or mutillid wasps. The subfamily is world-wide 
and predominantly tropical with a great abundance of species in 
the Neotropical Region. The North and Central American repre- 
sentatives were recently studied (Reiskind, 1969) and this paper 
represents the first portion of a revision of the South American 
fauna. 
The genus Psellocoptus was based on a single species, Psellocoptus 
flavostriatus Simon, found in the Cordillera de la Costa in northern 
Venezuela. This bizarre and distinct genus has been reported as a 
“beautiful and large species from the forests of Venezuela which 
(is) found running rapidly on the trunks on trees” (Simon, 1897). 
Collections from Rancho Grande reveal two sympatric species and 
comparison with the type specimens from nearby Colonia Tovar 
indicate that there exist at least three species of Psellocoptus. 
The general form and characteristics of this genus make it quite 
distinct from any other genus whereas the three species are very 
similar to one another. The genus probably originated as an isolate 
from the more dominant and widespread genera — Myrmecium and 
Castianeira — that has fairly recently speciated in the topographically 
complex Cordillera de la Costa. No other genus of castianeirine 
spiders has been reported from this region of Venezuela though it is 
likely that Mazax (found in Trinidad and Panama) and the smaller 
species of Castianeira will be found there. It is also probable that 
additional species of Psellocoptus will be discovered with further field 
work. 
I wish to thank Dr. W. J. Gertsch and Dr. J. A. L. Cooke for 
making the collections of the American Museum of Natural History 
available and Dr. M. Hubert and Dr. M. Vachon for the loan of 
the type material from the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in 
Paris. 
^Research supported in part by a University of Florida Biomedical Sci- 
ences Grant provided by the National Institutes of Health. 
Manuscript received by the editor August 17, 1971. 
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