Araneus bonali sp. n., a novel lichen-patterned species found on oak trunks (Araneae, Araneidae)

Abstract

The new species Araneusbonali Morano, sp. n. (Araneae, Araneidae) collected in central and western Spain is described and illustrated. Its novel status is confirmed after a thorough revision of the literature and museum material from the Mediterranean Basin. The taxonomy of Araneus is complicated, but both morphological and molecular data supported the genus membership of Araneusbonali Morano, sp. n. Additionally, the species uniqueness was confirmed by sequencing the barcode gene cytochrome oxidase I from the new species and comparing it with the barcodes available for species of Araneus. A molecular phylogeny, based on nuclear and mitochondrial genes, retrieved a clade with a moderate support that grouped Araneusdiadematus Clerck, 1757 with another eleven species, but neither included Araneusbonali sp. n. nor Araneusangulatus Clerck, 1757, although definitive conclusions about the relationships among Araneus species need more markers examined and a broader taxonomic coverage. The new species was collected on isolated holm oaks and forest patches within agricultural landscapes. Adults were mostly trapped on tree trunks, where their lichen-like colours favour mimicry, while juveniles were collected on tree branches. Specimens were never found either in ground traps or grass samples. This species overwinters as egg, juveniles appear in early spring, but reproduction does not take place until late summer-early autumn. Araneusbonali Morano, sp. n. was found in the same locality from where another new spider species was described. Nature management policies should thus preserve isolated trees as key refuges for forest arthropods in agricultural landscapes, as they may be hosting more unnoticed new species. After including Araneusbonali Morano, sp. n. and removing doubtful records and synonymies, the list of Araneus species in the Iberian Peninsula numbers eight.

Less is more: eight new synonyms in Mediterranean spiders (Araneae), with a new Pelecopsis species from Tunisia (Linyphiidae)

“…Araneus arganicola also has the same opisthosomal pattern as N. subfusca, thus it does not differ morphologically from Neoscona subfusca and becomes its junior synonym. Morano & Bonal (2018) also examined material of A. arganicola deposited in the MNHN, but they only saw subadult specimens. In their opinion, A. arganicola was a probable synonym of A. subfusca, which is confirmed here.…”

New record of Attulus saltator for Spain, with further 16 new regional spider records for Catalonia and Galicia (Araneae)

“…However, new studies on the arachnological fauna keep being done and, as a result, new species and new regional records keep being published over the years (e.g. Domènech et al 2020, Henriques et al 2018, Isaia et al 2017, Morano & Bonal 2018, which suggests that those checklists are still far from complete.…”