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The first record of Telemidae (Arachnida, Araneae) from Korea, with a description of new species of the genus Telema Simon, 1882

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Highlights

  • The family Telemidae Fage, 1913 (Arachnida: Araneae) is reported for the first time from Korea.

  • New species, Telema coreana sp. nov. are described with microscopic images, diagnostic characters, and a key to Telema species.

  • The new species brings a total number of 45 families of the Korean spider fauna, and the first report of an eyeless spider among the Korean species.

Abstract

In this study, we report the first record of the family Telemidae Fage, 1913 from Korea, with the description of a new species of the genus Telema Simon, 1882: Telema coreana sp. nov. The individuals of the new species were found in a Baeti-shale cave (Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea). Also, we provide microscopic photographs of the new species and a key to differentiating the Telema species.

Introduction

The family Telemidae Fage, 1913 is a group of tiny (0.9 – 2.2 mm) haplogyne spiders, currently containing 104 species in 16 genera worldwide (World Spider Catalog, 2022). Most of the species inhabit caves and have six eyes, although some of them are completely eyeless. Because having long and thin legs relative to their body, they are also called long-legged cave spiders.

Telema tenella Simon, 1882 the type species of the genus Telema Simon, 1882 were originally described in the family Leptonetidae. However, this genus was elevated to the subfamily Teleminae by Fage (1913) and then to the family rank, Telemidae by Petrunkevitch (1923). The type genus, Telema Simon, 1882, was previously the largest group in this family and contained more than 40 species around the world but has been reduced to six species after taxonomic revision of Asian telemids by Zhao et al. (2020). Telema could be distinguished from other genera by plate-shaped tibial glands (Emerit, 1984; Fig. 2), absent cymbial apophysis, and walking stick-shaped endogyne of the female genitalia (Wang et al., 2012, Zhao et al., 2020).

Telemids are inconsistently distributed in the Nearctic region, Europe, South Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and Australasian Realms. In East Asia (China and Japan), there are three known genera of Telemidae: Telema Simon, 1882, Pinelema Wang & Li, 2012, and Mekonglema Zhao & Li, 2020. However, telemids have not been found on the Korean peninsula. In this study, we describe the new species Telema coreana sp. nov. from a Baeti-shale cave (Fig. 1) resulting in a total number of 45 families of the Korean spider fauna, and the first report of an eyeless spider among Korean species.

Section snippets

Material and methods

Specimens were collected by hand from a shale cave located in Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do (Baeti-shale cave). The total length of the cave is approximately 350 m, consisting of one main passage with 19 branch passages. The quadrangle entrance is about 5 m wide, and 1 m high. All samples collected from the cave were carried alive to the laboratory (Lab. Insect Biosystematics, Seoul National University) for photographic records of a living specimens. The specimens were then placed in 98%

Key to species of the genus Telema (Simon, 1882) based on males

Species that lack a description of male specimens (T. auricoma Lin & Li, 2010 and T. mayana Gertsch, 1973) are not included. T. coreana sp. nov. can be differed from the former species by the absence of eyes, and a brownish abdomen (six eyes present with blueish abdomen in T. auricoma, six eyes present with greenish abdomen in T. mayana).

1. Eyes present or absent, male palpal bulb oval…2

- Eye absent, male palpal bulb sub-quadrangle or sub-squared…4

2. Six eyes present, embolus thumb-shaped…T.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR), funded by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of the Republic of Korea (NIBR202102203).

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