Australian Assassins, Part II: A review of the new assassin spider genus Zephyrarchaea (Araneae, Archaeidae) from southern Australia

By

Rix, Michael
Harvey, Mark S.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2012

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

191

Pages

1-62

Subjects

Conservation , cytochrome c oxidase , mitochondrial DNA , new species , Palpimanoidea , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.191.3070

 

Abstract

The Assassin Spiders of the family Archaeidae from southern Australia are revised, with a new genus (Zephyrarchaea gen. n.) and nine new species described from temperate, mesic habitats in southern Victoria, South Australia and south-western Western Australia: Z. austini sp. n., Z. barrettae sp. n., Z. grayi sp. n., Z. janineae sp. n., Z. marae sp. n., Z. marki sp. n., Z. melindae sp. n., Z. porchi sp. n. and Z. vichickmani sp. n. Specimens of the type species, Z. mainae (Platnick, 1991) comb. n., are redescribed from the Albany region of Western Australia, along with the holotype female of Z. robinsi (Harvey, 2002) comb. n. from the Stirling Range National Park. The previously described species Archaea hickmani Butler, 1929 from Victoria is here recognised as a nomen dubium. A key to species and multi-locus molecular phylogeny complement the species-level taxonomy, with maps, habitat photos, natural history information and conservation assessments provided for all species.