The goblin spiders (Araneae, Oonopidae) of the OTONGA Nature Reserve in Ecuador, with the description of seven new species

Nadine Dupérré,Elicio Tapia

doi:10.3897/evolsyst.1.14969

Abstract

The goblin spiders (Araneae, Oonopidae) of the Otonga Nature Reserve in the Choco region of Ecuador are reviewed. A total of 1034 adult specimens were collected in 2014 and 23 morphospecies in eight different genera were identified from these collections. We describe seven new species: one in the genus Niarchos Platnick & Duperre: Niarchos normani sp. n.; three in Scaphidysderina Platnick & Duperre: Scaphidysderina chirin sp. n., S. lubanako sp. n., S. tsaran sp. n.; two in Bipoonops Bolzern: Bipoonops lansa sp. n., B. pilan sp. n.; and one in Reductoonops Platnick & Berniker: Reductoonops berun sp. n. The males of Niarchos baehrae Platnick & Duperre, 2010 and Orchestina yanayacu Izquierdo, 2017 are described here for the first time. Natural history and collecting data are given for all morphospecies collected, including Niarchos barragani Platnick & Duperre, 2010, Scaphidysderina cotopaxi Platnick & Duperre, 2011, Scaphidysderina pinocchio Platnick & Duperre, 2011, Orchestina otonga Izquierdo, 2017, Orchestina santodomingo Izquierdo, 2017, Orchestina truncata Wunderlich, 2004, Reductoonops otonga Platnick & Berniker, 2014, Reductoonops pichincha Platnick & Berniker, 2014, Paradysderina fusiscuta Platnick & Duperre, 2011, Scaphiella pich Platnick & Duperre, 2010 and Tinadyserina otonga Platnick et al., 2013. The data show that oonopid spiders are a major element of the arachnofauna present in the Choco neotropical forests.

Highlights

The goblin spiders include 1747 species in 114 genera (World Spider Catalog 2017)
Male and female a tentatively match as they were found in the same extraction sample, on several occasions we found up to three Orchestina species in the same sample
Though not complete and mostly qualitative, this biodiversity assessment represents a more complete view of the arachnofauna assemblage found in these types of neotropical forests

Summary

Introduction

The goblin spiders (family Oonopidae) include 1747 species in 114 genera (World Spider Catalog 2017). The family was recently reviewed as part of the PBI Oonopidae, an extensive multinational research project. It appears that most species are found in tropical regions around the world (Jocqué and Dippenaar-Schoeman 2006; Ubick and Dupérré 2017). Most Oonopids are nocturnal ground-dwellers that are found in diverse habitats such forests, deserts, and savannahs (Jocqué and Dippenaar-Schoeman 2006). Pescennina and Orchestina) (Fannes et al 2008; Henrard and Jocqué 2012; Platnick and Dupérré 2011b; Izquierdo and Ramírez 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion