The one‐palped spider genera Tidarren and Echinotheridion in the Old World (Araneae, Theridiidae), with comparative remarks on Tidarren from America

Abstract

The one‐palped spider genera Tidarren and Echinotheridion are more or less confined to the tropics and subtropics of the southern hemisphere, with occurrence in South America, continental Africa, Madagascar, Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, and Yemen. This comparative description of the taxonomy and biology of the one‐palped spiders in the Old World comprises altogether 22 species, of which 17 are new to science. Four new species of Tidarren are described from Yemen (T. dentigerum n. sp. ♂♀, T. gracile n. sp. ♂♀, T. konrad n. sp. ♀, and T. sheba n. sp. ♂♀), eight from mainland Africa (T. aethiops n. sp. ♀, T. afrum n. sp. ♀, T. circe n. sp. ♀, T. griswoldi n. sp. ♀, T. lanceolatum n. sp. ♀, T. perplexum n. sp. ♀, T. ubickorum n. sp. ♀, and T. usambara n. sp. ♀), and five from Madagascar (T. apartiolum n. sp. ♀, T. dasyglossa n. sp. ♀, T. ephemerum n. sp. ♂, T. horaki n. sp. ♀, and T. obtusum n. sp. ♂♀). Three new synonyms are established. Tidarren chevalieri nov. syn. is a junior synonym of T. cuneolatum. Theridion guineense Simon, 1907 nov. syn. and Theridion turrigerum Simon, 1899 nov. syn. are synonymized with Tidarren scenicum (Thorell, 1899) nov. comb. (transferred from Theridion). The following further species are reconsidered: Tidarren argo Knoflach and van Harten, 2001 from Yemen, with a first record also from Chad; T. cuneolatum (Tullgren, 1910) from mainland Africa, Yemen, and the Canary Islands; and T. levii Schmidt, 1957 and T. scenicum from mainland Africa. In addition, the three American species T. haemorrhoidale (Bertkau, 1880), T. mixtum (O. P.‐Cambridge, 1896), and T. sisyphoides (Walckenaer, 1842) are included for comparison. Thus all hitherto known Tidarren species of the world are covered. A key for the Yemeni species is provided (males and females) as well as a tentative key for the African species (females only; Madagascar included) and the American species. For T. dentigerum and T. gracile from Yemen we give a first description of the copulatory behaviour. The genus Echinotheridion, though represented by eight New World species, is known from only one species in the Old World, E. gibberosum (Kulczynski, 1899) from the Canary Islands and Madeira. Comparative notes on this endemic offshoot are given.