Five New Additions to the Spider Fauna of Kansas

Abstract

In the course of compiling a list of the spider fauna of Kansas, five species in the family Gnaphosidae are reported for Kansas for the first time: Herpyllus bubulcus Chamberlin, Orodrassus coloradensis (Emerton), Sergiolus cyaneiventris Simon, Sosticus loricatus (L. Koch), and Zelotes pseustes Chamberlin. Information on the composition of the spider fauna of Kansas is very limited. Early works by Cragin (1886) and Scheffer (1904a, 1904b, 1905a, 1905b) represent the first systematic attempts to compile a list of species found in the state. In 1963, a survey of the spiders of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation and Rockefeller Experimental Tract revealed the presence of 192 different species in an area of 750 acres in northeastern Kansas (Fitch, 1963). A brief survey of the spider fauna of Meade County in the southwestern part of Kansas included natural history observations of the 82 species encountered (Fitch and Fitch, 1966). In the course of compiling a current, comprehensive list of the spider fauna of Kansas, the author discovered five species in the family Gnaphosidae not previously reported from Kansas. Details of these records are presented below. Herpyllus bubulcus Chamberlin is a southwestern species which occurs from Chihuahua, Mexico northward through Texas, New Mexico and the western half of Colorado (Platnick and Shadab, 1977). An adult female was collected on 18 April 1980, 15.5 miles west of Hardtner in Barber County, Kansas. More field work is needed to determine if this species is found outside of the Red Hills physiographic province (Kiichler, 1974). Orodrassus coloradensis (Emerton) is a western species ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the west coast of North America, and also is found in North Dakota and Manitoba. Specimens have been found under stones, logs and bark in aspen, spruce, and pine forests and in cabins (Platnick and Shadab, 1975). An adult female of this species was collected in Douglas County, Kansas, on 14 July 1933 and was recently discovered in the UniThis content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:26:41 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms VOLUME 92, NUMBERS 1-2 61 versity of Kansas Snow Entomological Museum spider collection. Since the nearest recorded locality is in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, this first Kansas record is a range extension of approximately 600 miles to the east. More field work is needed to determine its distribution and habitat within