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The lynx and nursery-web spider families in Israel (Araneae, Oxyopidae and Pisauridae)

Gershom LEVY

en Zoosystema 21 (1) - Pages 29-64

Published on 17 March 1999

The lynx spiders genera Oxyopes Latreille, 1804 and Peucetia Thorell, 1869 and the nursery-web spiders of the genera Pisaura Simon, 1885 and Rothus Simon, 1898 in Israel are revised. These versatile hunters form a conspicuous component of the Middle East vegetation-dwelling spider fauna. Oxyopes is represented by nine species. Only three out of these were formerly reported while the unknown female of one (O. sobrinus O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) is described here for the first time. Three are new species: O. nanulineatus , O. sinaiticus and O. mediterraneus , and three others constitute new records of species with rather disjunct distributions. Oxyopes optabilis O. P.-Cambridge, 1872 is newly synonymized with O. heterophthalmus (Latreille, 1804), whereas O. attica Hadjissarantos, 1940, O. maracadensis Charitonov, 1946, and O . eymiri Karol, 1967 are new synonyms of O. globifer Simon, 1876. Peucetia was known from Israel only by P . virescens (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872), however, the male is illustrated here for the first time. Two additional Peucetia species form new records. The possibly endemic Pisaura consocia (O. P.-Cambridge, 1872) and the taxonomically problematic Palearctic P. mirabilis (Clerck, 1757) are addressed, and the first representative in Asia of the African genus Rothus is described.


Keywords:

Araneae, Oxyopes, Peucetia, Pisaura, Rothus, Middle East.

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