Australian Assassins, Part III: A review of the Assassin Spiders (Araneae, Archaeidae) of tropical north-eastern Queensland

By

Rix, Michael
Harvey, Mark S.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2012

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

218

Pages

1-55

Subjects

Conservation , new species , Palpimanoidea , rainforests , taxonomy , Wet Tropics

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.218.3662

 

Abstract

The assassin spiders of the family Archaeidae from tropical north-eastern Queensland are revised, with eight new species described from rainforest habitats of the Wet Tropics bioregion and Mackay-Whitsundays Hinterland: A. griswoldi sp. n., A. hoskini sp. n., A. karenae sp. n., A. tealei sp. n., A. thompsoni sp.n., A. wallacei sp. n., A. westi sp. n. and A. woodae sp. n. Specimens of the only previously described species, A. daviesae Forster & Platnick, 1984, are redescribed from the southern Atherton Tableland. The rainforests of tropical eastern Queensland are found to be a potential hotspot of archaeid diversity and endemism, with the region likely to be home to numerous additional short-range endemic taxa. A key to species complements the taxonomy, with maps, natural history information and conservation assessments provided for all species.