Linyphiidae (Araneae) inhabiting hollow oaks in Mediterranean forests: New descriptions and temporal distribution of remarkable species

Abstract

Abstract. Hollows in mature trees provide a variety of habitats for high species richness and diversity of different arthropod groups. The scarcity of samplings carried out in tree hollows, especially on spiders and on mature oaks, predict the existence of taxonomic novelties in these rich microenvironments. A total of 18 Linyphiidae species, including one species new to science, were sampled with 49 tree hollow emergence traps set in deciduous Quercus forests in the Western Iberian Peninsula. Both sexes of Scotinotylus vettonicus Barrientos & Hernández-Corral sp. nov. and the female of the endemic Iberian Pelecopsis monsantensis Bosmans & Crespo, 2010 are described and both sexes of these two species and of Centromerus succinus (Simon, 1884) are illustrated. In addition, the spatial and temporal distribution of P. monsantensis, C. succinus, Midia midas (Simon, 1884) and Lepthyphantes minutus (Blackwall, 1833) is figured. Furthermore, the checklist of Linyphiidae species recorded in Salamanca province (Spain) is updated to a total of 40 species, representing 13% of all the linyphiids occurring in the Iberian Peninsula.