The first lowland species of the Holarctic alpine ground spider genus Parasyrisca (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) from Hungary

By

Szinetár, Csaba
Eichardt, János
Szuts, Tamas

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2009

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

16

Pages

197-208

Subjects

new species , Pannonian lowland , Parasyrisca arrabonica sp. n , sandy grassland , steppe

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.16.234

 

Abstract

The first lowland species of the alpine genus Parasyrisca, Parasyrisca arrabonica Szinetár & Eichardt, sp. n., is described from the sandy grasslands of Hungary. The genus was hitherto known only from Western Europe (Pyrenees and Western Alps) and Eastern Europe (Crimea), and although records from Slovenia and Romania were known, these are listed in check-lists in both cases as doubtful since no voucher specimens are available. Thus this species is not only the first representative of Parasyrisca in the Hungarian fauna and in the Pannonian region, but is the first verified record of the genus in Central Europe too. Parasyrisca arrabonica seems to belong to the speciose potanini group (of which this is the first European record and the westernmost occurrence to date), and is especially similar to P. turkenica Ovtsharenko, Platnick & Marusik, 1995 and P. songi Marusik & Fritzén, 2009. Detailed descriptions of the species’ ecological characteristics (habitat, co-occurring species) are provided, as its habitat preference is unusual and unique within the genus. This species is quite rare: only eight specimens have been found among 20700 captured spiders. Adult specimens have been collected exclusively in late autumn and early spring (so practically outside the major collecting period), which might explain why this species was not discovered earlier.