Systematics of the Australasian spider family Pararchaeidae (Arachnida:Araneae)

Abstract

The Pararchaeidae, a family of cryptic spiders known only from Australia and New Zealand, is revised. Six new genera: Anarchaea, gen. nov., Flavarchaea, gen. nov., Forstrarchaea, gen. nov., Nanarchaea, gen. nov., Ozarchaea, gen. nov., Westrarchaea, gen. nov., and 24 new species are described, 23 from mainland Australia and one from New Zealand. Anarchaea, gen. nov. from eastern Australia contains four species: A. corticola (Hickman, 1969), comb. nov. (type species), A. falcata, sp. nov., A. raveni, sp. nov. and A. robusta (Rix, 2005), comb. nov. Flavarchaea from eastern, southern and south-western Australia contains seven species: F. anzac, sp. nov., F. badja, sp. nov., F. barmah, sp. nov., F. hickmani (Rix, 2005), comb. nov., F. lofty, sp. nov., F. lulu (Rix, 2005), comb. nov. (type species) and F. stirlingensis, sp. nov. Forstrarchaea is represented only by the type species F. rubra (Forster, 1949), comb. nov. from New Zealand. Nanarchaea from eastern Australia contains two species: N. bryophila (Hickman, 1969), comb. nov. and N. binnaburra (Forster, 1955), comb. nov. (type species). Ozarchaea from Australia and New Zealand contains 16 species: O. bodalla, sp. nov., O. bondi, sp. nov., O. daviesae, sp. nov., O. forsteri, sp. nov., O. harveyi, sp. nov., O. janineae, sp. nov., O. ornata (Hickman, 1969), comb. nov. (type species), O. platnicki, sp. nov., O. saxicola (Hickman, 1969), comb. nov., O. spurgeon, sp. nov., O. stradbroke, sp. nov., O. valida, sp. nov., O. waldockae, sp. nov., O. werrikimbe, sp. nov., O. westraliensis, sp. nov. and O. wiangarie, sp. nov. Pararchaea Forster, 1955 is represented only by the type species P. alba Forster, 1955 from New Zealand. Westrarchaea, endemic to south-western Western Australia, contains three species: W. pusilla, sp. nov., W. sinuosa, sp. nov. (type species) and W. spinosa, sp. nov. A morphological cladistic analysis of the Pararchaeidae supported monophyly of the genera. Natural history information is summarised for each species where known, and the moulting behaviour, mating behaviour and egg sac of a pararchaeid species are described for the first time.