The genus Telema and its type species Telema tenella were described by Eugene Simon (1882) in the family Leptonetidae. The genus was later treated as a member of the subfamily Teleminae by Fage (1913), which was subsequently elevated to the status of family level, Telemidae Fage, 1913, by Petrunkevitch (1923). The family Telemidae now contains 8 genera and 61 species (Platnick 2012) from tropical Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and North and Central America. Its type genus, Telema Simon, 1882, is the largest genus in the family, with 40 species occurring in Guatemala, Southwest Europe, and East and Southeast Asia.

Prior to make global revision of the genus we decided to study the type species, which is insufficiently known, and to redescribe it details. This can allow us and other researches to conduct regional revisions of Telema. Although several authors provided descriptions of the type species Telema tenella (Simon 1893, Fage 1913, Yaginuma 1974, Ribera and Mateos 2000, Le Peru 2011), the morphological characters were not sufficiently detailed. Further, no information existed on the status of type material in Paris (Christine Rollard, personal communication). We made great efforts to find the species at the type locality, but failed. This suggested that Telema tenella has a restricted distribution. The species is known from six localities in Mount Canigó (Juberthie 1985) in the French Department of the Oriental Pyrenees. All localities were above 900 meters in elevation. More recently, this species has been recorded from la Cova del Far in the province of Girona, Spain, at 1100 meters in elevation (Ribera and Mateos 2000). However, Juberthie (personal communication) indicated that no specimens were recovered in five localities of Mount Canigó, and a recently conducted (2006–2007) survey in Cova del Far (Girona-Spain) also failed to detect specimens.

We had the chance to collect some specimens of Telemidae in a cave near the type locality of Telema tenella in 2011. The small cave was located next to Highway D115A, approximately 2000 meters from Banys de la Preste on the way to Prats of Molló, France (42°24.43'N, 2°24.37'E, elevation 1097 meters), which is approximately 9000 meters from the type locality. After comparing the specimen with original description, we treat them as Telema tenella, the type species of Telema. Herein, we describe these specimens.

Specimens were collected by direct searching, and subsequently were examined and measured using a Leica M205 C stereomicroscope. Further details were studied and measured with an Olympus BX41 compound microscope. The copulatory organs were examined and illustrated after they were dissected from the spiders’ bodies. Vulva were removed and treated in lactic acid before illustration. The right palp of male spider was illustrated. The specimens were preserved in an 80% ethanol solution. Photos were taken with an Olympus C7070 wide zoom digital camera (7.1 megapixels) mounted on an Olympus SZX12 stereomicroscope. The images were montaged using Helicon Focus image stacking software. All measurements were given in millimeters. Leg measurements were shown as: total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). Leg segments were measured on their dorsal side.

The studied specimens were deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (IZCAS).