On new spider species of the genus Episinus (Araneae, Theridiidae) from China and proposal of five species groups

By

Liang, Yun
Liu, Jinnan
Yin, Haiqiang
Xu, Xiang

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-2-7

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

13

Pages

1--19

Subjects

COI , Morphology , species-group , Spintharinae , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e144222

 

Abstract

Currently, the genus Episinus Walckenaer, 1809 includes 64 described species mainly being distributed in Asia, Africa and the Americas, with 16 described species in China. During the recent surveys across various regions of China, we found three previously undescribed species which have been identified as belonging to Episinus.<br> Three new species of Episinus Walckenaer, 1809 are described: Episinus anfu sp. nov. (♀) from Jiangxi Province, E. implicatus sp. nov. (♀) from Yunnan Province and E. pseudonubilus sp. nov. (♂♀) from Shaanxi Province. Based on morphological characteristics and previous studies, we further propose five species groups to accommodate the Chinese Episinus, including two species groups proposed by Liu et al. (2022). Detailed descriptions, photographs, hand drawings, DNA barcodes and a distribution map of the three new species are provided.