Linyphiid spiders collected by V. Mahnert in Kenya, with the description of a new genus and two new species (Arachnida: Araneae)

Andrei V Tanasevitch

doi:10.35929/rsz.0024

Abstract

A collection of spiders from Kenya, assembled by Prof. Volker Mahnert and deposited in the Natural History Museum of Geneva, contains 16 identifiable linyphiid species. Among of them a new genus and two new species were revealed: Afrotrichona gen. nov., with Afrotrichona mahnerti sp. nov. as the type species, and Agyneta spinifera sp. nov. Males of Pelecopsis subflavaRussell-Smith & Jocqué, 1986, Lepthyphantes (s. str.) buensisBosmans & Jocqué, 1983, and Machadocara gongylioidesMiller, 1970 are illustrated and briefly redescribed. The latter two species, together with Agyneta habra (Locket, 1968), Metalepthyphantes vicinusLocket, 1968, Microctenonyx subitaneus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1875) and P. pasteuri (Berland in Fage & Simon, 1936), are reported for the Kenyan fauna for the first time. In addition, A. spinifera sp. nov. is also reported from Tanzania.

Highlights

The linyphiid fauna of the Afrotropical Region amounts to at least 422 species, 106 of them are recorded from Kenya (Caporiacco, 1947, 1949; Denis, 1950a, 1962; Holm, 1962, 1968, 1979; Bosmans, 1977, 1979; Jocque, 1984; Russell-Smith & Jocque, 1986; Scharff, 1989; etc.)
This paper is based on spider material collected by Volker Mahnert (1943-2018) in Kenya and kept at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève, Switzerland (MHNG) of which he was the director from 1989 to 2005 (Schwendinger, 2019)
Three of the currently known 114 species occur outside the Afrotropics: the European-Ancient Mediterranean Microctenonyx subitaneus is perhaps introduced, Microlinyphia sterilis (Pavesi, 1883) was reported from China (Zhu & Shi, 1985), and Erigone prominens Bösenberg & Strand, 1906 is considered to be a cosmopolitan

Summary

Introduction

The linyphiid fauna of the Afrotropical Region amounts to at least 422 species, 106 of them are recorded from Kenya (Caporiacco, 1947, 1949; Denis, 1950a, 1962; Holm, 1962, 1968, 1979; Bosmans, 1977, 1979; Jocque, 1984; Russell-Smith & Jocque, 1986; Scharff, 1989; etc.). Volker Mahnert in Kenya, which is presented below, adds to the Kenyan spider list eight linyphiid species, two of them are described here as new to science

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