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Issue: Vol. 5666 No. 2: 28 Jul. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-07-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5666.2.4
Page range: 211-224
Abstract views: 68
PDF downloaded: 3

Spiniculosa, a new wolf spider genus (Araneae, Lycosidae) from Africa, with description of a new species from the coast of Kenya

Department of Zoology; Swedish Museum of Natural History; Box 50007; SE-104 05 Stockholm; Sweden
Afrotropical Region

Abstract

Spiniculosa gen. nov. is proposed for two wolf spider species from the Afrotropical Region. One of them was formerly placed in the genus Pardosa, viz. Spiniculosa crassipalpis (Purcell) comb. nov., while the other, S. albida sp. nov., is newly described. These species share traits in the morphology of the male copulatory organs, as well as the males having a row of short spine-like setae proventrally on the first leg coxa and trochanter respectively. Spiniculosa crassipalpis (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia) is redescribed and illustrated, the male palp illustrated for the first time. It is here synonymized with Pardosa upembensis (Roewer, 1959) syn. nov. Spiniculosa albida sp. nov., remarkable for its whitish body coloration, is described on material from a seashore with white sand in Kenya.

 

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How to Cite

Kronestedt, T. (2025) Spiniculosa, a new wolf spider genus (Araneae, Lycosidae) from Africa, with description of a new species from the coast of Kenya. Zootaxa, 5666 (2), 211–224. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5666.2.4