Eight cobweb spider species from China building detritus-based, bell-shaped retreats (Araneae, Theridiidae)

By

Li, Zichang
Agnarsson, Ingi
Peng, Yu
Liu, Jie 1968-

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1055

Pages

95--121

Subjects

Bell-shaped retreat , Campanicola , new species , taxonomy , theridiid spiders , trash-decorating behaviour

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1055.67620

 

Abstract

Eight cobweb spider species building a detritus-based, bell-shaped retreat from China are reported in the current paper, including five new Campanicola species and three known species: Campanicola anguilliformis Li & Liu, sp. nov., Campanicola falciformis Li & Liu, sp. nov., Campanicola heteroidea Li & Liu, sp. nov., Campanicola tauricornis Li & Liu, sp. nov., Campanicola volubilis Li & Liu, sp. nov., Campanicola campanulata (Chen, 1993), Campanicola ferrumequina (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906), and Parasteatoda ducta (Zhu, 1998). Among them, the male of Parasteatoda ducta (Zhu, 1998) is described for the first time. We provide photographs of all species and descriptions for new species in the current paper. The type of bell-shaped retreat is rare in theridiid, and found only in four related genera. A natural next step upon completing this taxonomic study would be to analyse and understand the evolution of the retreat and related traits.