On Venezuelan pholcid spiders (Araneae, Pholcidae) Author Huber, Bernhard A. 33607F65-19BF-4DC9-94FD-4BB88CED455F Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany. b.huber@leibniz-zfmk.de Author Villarreal, Osvaldo 679C385E-B068-4351-9D2F-97753E534C26 Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela. & Museu Nacional / UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. osvaldovillarreal@gmail.com text European Journal of Taxonomy 2020 2020-10-01 718 1 317 journal article 10.5852/ejt.2020.718.1101 4069574 F9E9A91E-488C-4DB1-9361-E788E9AC5BC1 Metagonia Simon, 1893 Notes Eight species of Metagonia are listed here for Venezuela . They represent only two of the seven species groups proposed in Huber et al. (2018) : the delicata group [ M. beni Huber, 2000 ; M. latigo Huber sp. nov. ; M. mariguitarensis ( González-Sponga, 1998 ) ; M. guianesa Huber sp. nov. ], with apparent affinities to the Amazonian fauna; and the rica group [ M. conica (Simon, 1893) ; M. juliae González-Sponga, 2010 ; M. triocular (González-Sponga, 2011) ; M. guttata Huber sp. nov. ], with apparent affinities to the Central American fauna (and probably the Colombian fauna which is essentially unknown). Compared to relatively well-studied countries like Mexico (25 described +2 undescribed species available to the first author) and Brazil (18 +21) this is a low number of species, suggesting that the Venezuelan fauna may still be seriously undersampled. However, much of the diversity in Mexico is the result of extensive radiations in caves ( Gertsch 1986 ), and much of the diversity in Brazil is in three species groups of Metagonia that are restricted to the Atlantic Forest and are not present in Venezuela : the bifida , furcata , and petropolis groups (according to the classification in Huber et al. 2018 ). Thus, while there are certainly numerous species of Metagonia that remain to be discovered in Venezuela , the diversity may be relatively low indeed. The remaining two species groups proposed in Huber et al. (2018) ( potiguar and taruma groups) might be present in Venezuela but have not yet been found.