Corresponding authors: Zhanqi Chen (
Academic editor: Gergin Blagoev
In an ongoing effort to expand knowledge of the Chinese cobweb spider fauna (
Deng Z, Agnarsson I, Chen Z, Liu J (2022)
In the past two years, a series of surveys for Chinese theridiid spiders were conducted by the colleagues of Hubei University in China and yielded numerous new species. This is our second paper on Chinese cobweb spiders with the aim to review the Chinese
In the field, we collected cobweb spiders by using visual searching and beating vegetation. We attempted to take photographs of every species, alive, in the field, and webs of all species encountered in web were photographed. All specimens were preserved in 99% ethanol and examined with an Olympus SZX16 stereomicroscope; details were further investigated with an Olympus BX51 compound microscope. Male palps and female genitalia were examined and their photographs taken after dissection from the spider bodies. The epigynum was cleared with Proteinase K. Habitus and photographs were obtained using a Leica 205C digital microscope. We added some key marginal lines for genitalia photographs using the Apple pencil (2nd generation) and edited the photographs in Adobe Photoshop 2020. Leg measurements are shown as: total length (femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, tarsus). The terminology used in text and figure legends, and palpal homologies follow
Female of
The distributions of known
India (Andaman Is.) | |
China, Japan, Philippines, India | |
Indonesia | |
China | |
Malaysia, Indonesia | |
China | |
Philippines | |
China | |
India | |
Indonesia | |
India, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia | |
tropical Africa, introduced to the Americas, Papua New Guinea, China, Korea, Japan, and Pacific Islands | |
India | |
Sri Lanka to Taiwan, China, Japan, introduced to the Netherlands | |
Malaysia and Indonesia | |
India | |
China, Vietnam to Japan, Philippines, Indonesia | |
China |
China (Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang), Japan, Philippines, India.
The taxonomy of
China (Fujian; Guangxi; Hainan; Hunan, newly recorded; Taiwan; Zhejiang), Japan, Korea, Pacific Is., Papua New Guinea; also tropical Africa and widespread across the Americas (after
Although we did not examine the female holotype of
China (Yunnan). New country and province record (Fig.
China (Jiangxi; Hainan, newly recorded; Hubei, newly recorded; Sichuan, newly recorded; Yunnan, newly recorded; Taiwan), Japan, Netherlands, Sri Lanka.
This species can be distinguished from other
China (Fujian; Guangxi; Hunan; Taiwan; Yunnan, newly recorded), Vietnam to Japan, Philippines, Indonesia.
The species epithet refers to its similarity to
China (Yunnan) (Fig.
The species epithet refers to the black and yellow stripes on the abdomen of the specimen.
The new species is similar to
Field photographs
China (Yunnan) (Fig.
Map with sampling localities for
It is difficult to speculate on
The manuscript benefited from comments by Gergin Blagoev (Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Canada), Nathalie Yonow (Swansea University, Wales), and two anonymous reviewers. This study was financially supported by CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (19CAS-TFE-3), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC-31573236/31273268/31772420) and National Science and Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program of China (Grant No. 2019FY101800).