Revisions of Holocnemus and Crossopriza: the spotted-leg clade of Smeringopinae (Araneae, Pholcidae)

Abstract

The genera Holocnemus Simon, 1873 and Crossopriza Simon, 1893 are revised. Together with Stygopholcus Kratochvíl, 1932 (revised recently) and the newly described genus Maghreba gen. nov., they constitute the spotted-leg clade within the northern clade of Smeringopinae. Males and females in this group are characterized by dark marks on the leg femora and tibiae. The native area of the spotted-leg clade ranges from northern Africa and the Mediterranean to Central Asia and NW India. A morphological cladistic analysis suggests that Holocnemus is paraphyletic while Crossopriza is monophyletic, but morphology seems only partly adequate to resolve phylogenetic relationships convincingly. The genus Holocnemus includes four species, all of which are redescribed: H. pluchei (Scopoli, 1763); H. reini (C. Koch, 1873) comb. nov. (transferred from Pholcus); H. caudatus (Dufour, 1820); and H. hispanicus Wiehle, 1933. The genus Maghreba gen. nov. includes eight species from NW Africa: M. aurouxi (Barrientos, 2019) gen. et comb. nov. (transferred from Holocnemus; redescribed, female newly described) and seven newly described species. The genus Crossopriza includes six previously described species (of which five are redescribed), and 18 newly described species. The Madagascan C. nigrescens Millot, 1946 is synonymized with C. lyoni (Blackwall, 1867). All new species are described on the basis of both sexes.

Contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of Morocco (Arachnida: Araneae) – First note – On new records of cave spiders

“…17i). This distance is about 0.24 to 0.3 mm for H. caudatus (after Huber 2022: p. 40, figs 102, 104 and 106). The difference in separating the males of the two species (the distances between male cheliceral apophyses) was more difficult to assess.…”

“…For identification we relied on several publications and reference websites: Simon (1909, 1911), Machado (1940), Denis (1954, 1961), de Blauwe (1980), Bosmans (1986, 2006a, 2006b, 2021), Hormiga & Ribera (1990), Rheims & Brescovit (2004), Benhadi-Marín et al (2013), Tanasevitch (2014), Barrientos et al (2019, 2020), Breitling (2020), Huber (2022), Nentwig et al (2023), Oger (2023), etc. The taxonomic status follows the WSC (2023).…”

“…Comments. The species was recently transferred from the genus Holocnemus (Huber 2022). Maghreba aurouxi is currently known from Morocco and is probably a Moroccan endemic species.…”

“…Maghreba aurouxi is currently known from Morocco and is probably a Moroccan endemic species. Excluding the historical record between Irherm and Tiferki (“assigned tentatively” according to Huber 2022), the range of the species is so far restricted to the northeast of the Moroccan High Atlas (Fig. 32).…”

“…The poor knowledge of the Moroccan spider fauna is especially reflected in cave environments, a traditionally understudied habitat that yielded several species new to science over the last years (e.g. Tanasevitch 2014, Barrientos et al 2020, Huber 2021, 2022). The present paper is the first in a series of contributions aiming to improve the knowledge of the taxonomy, distribution and ecology of cave-dwelling spiders of Morocco.…”