Marusik Yuri M, Azarkina Galina N
Institute for Biological Problems, of the North, FEB RAS, Portovaya Street 18, Magadan 685000, Russia. Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa Zoological Museum, University of Turku, Turku 20014, Finland; Email:
Laboratory of Systematics of Invertebrate Animals, Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Frunze Street 11, Novosibirsk 630091, Russia.; Email:
Zootaxa. 2016 Sep 7;4161(4):561-6. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4161.4.7.
With 372 species, Xysticus C.L. Koch, 1835 is the largest genus in the family Thomisidae (WSC 2016). As with other speciose genera, the genus has never been revised on a global scale and is only thoroughly known in a few parts of the Holarctic, namely Central and Northern Europe, North America, Israel and Japan. Over 200 species are known from one/two taxonomic references only, or from a single illustrated description/redescription (WSC 2016). The fact that 40% of species are known from only one sex (104 females and 54 males) or from juveniles (8 species) (WSC 2016) suggests that Xysticus requires revision. During a study of crab spiders of the Caucasus, we experienced difficulties in identifying Xysticus spasskyi Utochkin, 1968 due to the lack of detailed figures of the male palp and female epigyne. This species was based on the holotype female collected from an unspecified locality in the coastal part of modern Kransnodar Province (Utochkin 1968). The male of X. spasskyi was described as X. umbrinus Utochkin, 1968 from Kuban' Region (currently Krasnodar Province). The two species were synonymised by Ovtsharenko (1979). Besides Krasnodar Province, the species has been reported from North Ossetia (Ponomarev & Komarov 2013) and South Ossetia (Ponomarev & Komarov 2015), Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Crimea (Mikhailov 2013; Otto 2015). The illustrations in the descriptions of Utochkin (1968) and Ovtsharenko (1979), are either very small, schematic or provide no diagnostic details. The endogyne (=vulva) of this species has never been illustrated. Here we redescribe this species and compare distant populations.
球蛛属（Xysticus）由C.L. 科赫于1835年建立，是蟹蛛科（Thomisidae）中最大的属，有372个物种（世界蜘蛛目录，2016年）。与其他物种丰富的属一样，该属从未在全球范围内进行过修订，仅在全北区的少数地区有深入研究，即中欧、北欧、北美、以色列和日本。超过200个物种仅在一两个分类学参考文献中被提及，或者仅来自单一的图示描述/重新描述（世界蜘蛛目录，2016年）。40%的物种仅由一种性别（104只雌蛛和54只雄蛛）或幼蛛（8个物种）被描述过（世界蜘蛛目录，2016年），这一事实表明球蛛属需要重新修订。在对高加索地区蟹蛛的研究中，由于缺乏雄蛛触肢和雌蛛外雌器的详细图，我们在鉴定1968年由乌托金描述的斯氏球蛛（Xysticus spasskyi）时遇到了困难。该物种基于从现代克拉斯诺达尔边疆区沿海某未指明地点采集的正模雌蛛（乌托金，1968年）。斯氏球蛛的雄蛛被乌托金于1968年从库班地区（现克拉斯诺达尔边疆区）描述为暗球蛛（X. umbrinus）。奥夫沙连科（1979年）将这两个物种同义化。除了克拉斯诺达尔边疆区，该物种还在北奥塞梯（波诺马廖夫和科马罗夫，2013年）、南奥塞梯（波诺马廖夫和科马罗夫，2015年）、格鲁吉亚、阿塞拜疆和克里米亚被报道过（米哈伊洛夫，2013年；奥托，2015年）。乌托金（1968年）和奥夫沙连科（1979年）描述中的插图要么非常小、示意性的，要么没有提供诊断细节。该物种的外雌器（=阴门）从未被图示过。在此我们重新描述该物种并比较不同地区的种群。
