The flattie spiders of the Selenops isopodus species group (Araneae: Selenopidae) with a review of Selenops records from Colombia
Author
Crews, Sarah C.
California Academy of Sciences, Department of Entomology, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA, 94118, USA.
Author
Galvis, William
Grupo de Investigación de en Aracnología & Miriapodología (GAM-UN), Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Bogotá, Colombia.
Author
Torres, Richard A.
0000-0003-1455-1981
Pós-graduação em Zoologia. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, CEP 31270 - 901, Brazil. Grupo de Investigación en Zoología y Ecología. Universidad de Sucre. Sucre, Colombia. richardtorree @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 1455 - 1981 & Grupo de Investigación en Zoología y Ecología, Universidad de Sucre, Sucre, Colombia.
richardtorree@gmail.com
Author
Gutiérrez-Estrada, Miguel A.
Grupo de Investigación Ecología y Biodiversidad en Ecosistemas Tropicales (EBET), Facultad Ciencias Básicas y Aplicadas, Universidad de la Guajira, Riohacha, Colombia.
Author
Sarmiento, Jessica
Grupo de Investigación en Recursos Naturales, Universidad de Pamplona, Pamplona, Colombia.
Author
Esposito, Lauren A.
0000-0002-5514-7486
California Academy of Sciences, Department of Entomology, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, CA, 94118, USA. & lesposito @ calacademy. org; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 5514 - 7486
lesposito@calacademy.org
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-04-21
4964
1
61
82
journal article
7075
10.11646/zootaxa.4964.1.3
19ec59cf-a6ba-4760-8a7f-dac3e88b0775
1175-5326
4706688
6E9CAF76-1905-4442-B355-5F9206BD9B16
Selenopidae
in
Colombia
In general, many South American selenopids appear to be widespread with no straightforward biogeographic barriers. It is difficult to determine if the small distributions of some species represent narrow areas of endemism, or if like most selenopids, they are poorly collected. In some cases, as with
Selenops cocheleti
Simon, 1880
and
S. mexicanus
Keyserling, 1880
, the spiders probably have moved around with people in the past and continue to do so (Crews 2011;
Crews
et al.
2016
). In other species, like
S. banksi
Muma, 1953
, species are poorly collected but have an extremely broad distribution, probably due to their proclivity to live in the canopy (Crews
et al.
2021). Some species appear to be restricted to small areas but eventually are found in other areas far away, and it may take a while to fill in the gap (
Crews and Harvey 2011
). Currently, at least eight selenopid species are known from
Colombia
(
S. bullerengue
sp. nov.
,
S. curruganja
Crews & Galvis 2021
,
S. cocheleti
,
S. geraldinae
Corronca, 1996
,
S. isopodus
,
S. lavillai
Corronca, 1996
,
S.
mexicanus
, and S. sp. ‘leg tufts’—see below) with two being synanthropic (
S. cocheleti
,
S. mexicanus
) and two endemic (
S. bullerengue
sp. nov.
,
S. curruganja
). Given the distribution of
S. banksi
(Crews
et al.
2021)
, it is likely this species is also found in
Colombia
. Both sexes are not available for all known species, and there are localities from which only juveniles that cannot be determined to species are known, and at least one of these is a new record for the country or a new species. We are currently rearing juveniles of this species to determine its identity. Nevertheless, there is much more to discover.
FIGURES 56–59.
Habitats of species of the
S. isopodus
group. 56 Habitat of
S. arikok
, Arikok
National Park, Aruba (photo Jake Scott); 57 Habitat of
S. curazao
Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles (photo Carel de Haseth; 58 Habitat of
S. isopodus
Barichara
, Colombia (photo by Sarah Crews); 59 Habitat of
S.
bullerengue
sp. nov.
, El Roble, Biological Station Tierra Santa (photo Richard Torres).
Colombia
exhibits the same patterns on a smaller scale within its borders as broader patterns of diversity on the South American continent: That is, many species are widespread and can be found syntopically with other widespread species and/or selenopid species with more restricted distributions. For example, it appears that
S. isopodus
is distributed (thus far) exclusively within the Cordillera Oriental and adjacent Caribbean coast, while
S. bullerengue
sp. nov.
is thus far only know from the Caribbean coast. Continued and concentrated collecting efforts will help us to understand distributional patterns of selenopids in the region. Below we have provided records of all species of selenopids collected in
Colombia
to date as well as a map that also indicates unidentifiable juveniles (
Fig. 60
). Some records come from the citizen science efforts of iNaturalist, which are useful for adding locality data for a poorly known group, as well as life history data (e.g.—life stages, time of year present, etc.). All images were examined by the first author, and if there were any doubts to the identity of the specimens in the images, they are only included as
Selenops
sp.