New species of smiley-faced spider Spintharus (Araneae, Theridiidae) from Brazil, and comments on unobserved diversity in South America

By

LeMay, Gabriel A
Agnarsson, Ingi

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

915

Pages

17--24

Subjects

Biogeography , Cobweb spiders , cryptic species , DNA barcoding

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.915.47563

 

Abstract

Spintharus is a genus of spiders that contained only two species until 2018 when it was demonstrated that a ‘widespread’ species was instead composed of multiple short-range endemics. This note redescribes Spintharus gracilis Keyserling and describes a new species of Spintharus (Araneae, Theridiidae), S. levergersp. nov., both based on specimens from Brazil. We also examine specimens from several additional localities in Brazil displaying variation consistent with patterns previously found within the Caribbean: geographically isolated and unique localities may contain independent species lineages. Given the limited number of specimens, profuse variation, and lack of DNA data from museum specimens, it is challenging to gauge the number of species in the observed material. Instead of describing these as new species here, we highlight this variation and hypothesize that in South America, a greater diversity of the genus across the geographical landscape will be found than predicted based on Levi’s “widespread Spintharus flavidus” hypothesis. Our results suggest that continental efforts to sample the genus would be profitable, as this charismatic group likely harbors unappreciated diversity throughout the continent.