Four new species of the primitively segmented spider genus Qiongthela from Hainan Island, China (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)

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Abstract

The primitively segmented spider genus Qiongthela Xu & Kuntner, 2015 consists of seven species that are distributed in Hainan Island, China and southern Vietnam. Of the seven species, five are known from Hainan Island. In this study, four more Qiongthela species collected from Hainan Island are diagnosed and described as new to science based on morphological characters: Q. baoting sp. nov. (♂♀), Q. qiongzhong sp. nov. (♂♀), Q. sanya sp. nov. (♂♀), Q. yinggezui sp. nov. (♂♀). To facilitate future identification, the GenBank accession codes of the DNA barcode gene, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), for all the type specimens are also provided.

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A genus-level taxonomic review of primitively segmented spiders (Mesothelae, Liphistiidae)

Xin Xu, Fengxiang Liu, Jian Chen … (2015)

Abstract The spider suborder Mesothelae , containing a single extant family Liphistiidae , represents a species-poor and ancient lineage. These are conspicuous spiders that primitively retain a segmented abdomen and appendage-like spinnerets. While their classification history is nearly devoid of phylogenetic hypotheses, we here revise liphistiid genus level taxonomy based on original sampling throughout their Asian range, and on the evidence from a novel molecular phylogeny. By combining morphological and natural history evidence with phylogenetic relationships in the companion paper, we provide strong support for the monophyly of Liphistiidae , and the two subfamilies Liphistiinae and Heptathelinae . While the former only contains Liphistius Schiödte, 1849, a genus distributed in Indonesia (Sumatra), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, we recognize and diagnose seven heptatheline genera, all but three removed from the synonymy of Heptathela : i) Ganthela Xu & Kuntner, gen. n. with the type species Ganthela yundingensis Xu, sp. n. is known from Fujian and Jiangxi, China; ii) a rediagnosed Heptathela Kishida, 1923 is confined to the Japanese islands (Kyushu and Okinawa); iii) Qiongthela Xu & Kuntner, gen. n. with the type species Qiongthela baishensis Xu, sp. n. is distributed disjunctly in Hainan, China and Vietnam; iv) Ryuthela Haupt, 1983 is confined to the Ryukyu archipelago (Japan); v) Sinothela Haupt, 2003 inhabits Chinese areas north of Yangtze; vi) Songthela Ono, 2000 inhabits southwest China and northern Vietnam; and vii) Vinathela Ono, 2000 ( Abcathela Ono, 2000, syn. n.; Nanthela Haupt, 2003, syn. n.) is known from southeast China and Vietnam.