Gnaphosidae  Banks, 1892 / Zelotes  Gistel, 1848   132 species

Zelotes tenuis (L. Koch, 1866)

Description

Tibial apophysis slightly bent. Embolus broad and bent. Body colour light or black.

Body length male: 3.4-7.2 mm
Body length female: 3.5-9.6 mm
Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Mediterranean and Central Europe to Russia (Caucasus). Introduced to Galapagos Is., USA
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List
Albania   (Deltshev et al., 2011b) ||| Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Austria   (Hepner & Milasowszky, 2007) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| Egypt   (El-Hennawy, 2017a) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| France / Corsica   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Greece   (Lecigne, 2023; Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Greece / Crete   (Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Morocco   (Denis, 1952d; Benhalima & Bosmans, 2024) ||| North Macedonia   (Blagoev, 2002) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Duma, 2007e) ||| Russia, Southern   (Ponomarev et al., 2017a; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Serbia   (Dudić et al., 2013) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 2019) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019; Barrientos & Febrer, 2017) ||| Switzerland   (Hänggi, 1999) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Demircan Aksan & Topçu, 2022c; Demircan & Topçu, 2016) ||| Ukraine   (Kovblyuk & Kastrygina, 2015b) |||
References

Barrientos J A, Febrer B (2017) Arañas (Arachnida, Araneae) de Menorca (Islas Baleares, España). Nuevos datos. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 31: 8-24 pdf

Benhacene R, Adjami A, Hadjeb A, Kermiche K, Ouakid M L (2023) Bibliographic checklist of the Algerian spider fauna (Araneae). Zootaxa 5352: 301-357 pdf

Benhalima S, Bosmans R (2024) First historical checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Morocco, between 1840–2024. Zootaxa 5555: 407-535 pdf

Blagoev G (2002) Check list of Macedonian spiders (Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 54: 9-34 pdf

Blagoev G, Deltshev C, Lazarov S, Naumova M (2018) The spiders (Araneae) of Bulgaria. Version: August 2018. National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Online at http://www.nmnhs.com/spiders-bulgaria/ (accessed on 10.9.2018) pdf

Bosmans R, Chatzaki M (2005) A catalogue of the spiders of Greece – a critical review of all spider species cited from Greece with their localities. Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische arachnologische Vereniging 20 (2, suppl.): 1-124 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer J, Russell-Smith A, Hadjiconstantis M, Komnenov M, Bosselaers J, Huber S, McCowan D, Snazell R, Decae A, Zoumides C, Kielhorn K-H, Oger P (2019c) Spiders of Cyprus (Araneae). A catalogue of all currently known species from Cyprus. Newsletter of the Belgian Arachnological Society 34, Suppl. 1: 1-173 pdf

Branco V V, Morano E, Cardoso P (2019) An update to the Iberian spider checklist (Araneae). Zootaxa 4614: 201-254 pdf

Deltshev C (2003) A critical review of the spider species (Araneae) described by P. Drensky in the period 1915-1942 from the Balkans. Berichte des Naturwissenschaftlich-Medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck 90: 135-150 pdf

Deltshev C, Vrenozi B, Blagoev G, Lazarov S (2011b) Spiders of Albania – faunistic and zoogeographical review (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 63: 125-144 pdf

Demircan Aksan N, Topçu A (2022c) A preliminary checklist of the spider fauna of European Türkiye. Serket 19: 39-56 pdf

Demircan N, Topçu A (2016) First records for spider fauna of the European part of Turkey (Araneae). Serket 15: 85-91 pdf

Denis J (1952d) Notes d'aranéologie marocaine. I. Les Zelotes du Maroc. Revue Française d'Entomologie 19: 113-126 pdf

Dudić B D, Tomić V T, Sivčev I, Büchs W, Sivčev L, Graora D, Gotlin-Čuljak T (2013) New data on spider fauna from northern Serbia. Archives of Biological Sciences 65: 1669-1673 pdf

Duma I (2007e) Zelotes tenuis (L. Koch, 1866) (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) first mention for the Romanian fauna. Annals of West University of Timisoara, Biology 10: 121-124

El-Hennawy H K (2017a) A list of Egyptian spiders (revised in 2017). Serket 15: 167-183 pdf

Gajdoš P, Černecká Ľ, Šestáková A (2019) Pannonic salt marshes revealed six new spiders to Slovakia (Araneae: Gnaphosidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Theridiidae). Biologia 74: 53-64 pdf

Hänggi A (1999) Nachträge zum "Katalog der schweizerischen Spinnen" - 2. Neunachweise von 1993 bis 1999 Archnologische Mitteilungen 18: 17-37 pdf

Hepner M, Milasowszky N (2007) Zelotes tenuis (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), neu für Österreich. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 33: 18-20 pdf

Isaia M, Tolve M, Pantini P (2025) Araneae.it: 2.0: the new updated version of the digital catalog of the Italian spiders and other arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones, Palpigradi, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 57: 197-204 pdf

Kovblyuk M M (2005b) Little-known species of the genus Zelotes (Aranei, Gnaphosidae) from Crimea. Vestnik Zoologii 39: 3-14 pdf

Kovblyuk M M, Kastrygina Z A (2015b) Updated catalogue of the spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) of the Crimea. Ukainska Entomofaunistyka 6(2): 1-81 pdf

Le Peru B (2007) Catalogue et répartition des araignées de France. Revue Arachnologique 16: 1-468 pdf

Lecigne S (2023) New contribution to the spider fauna (Arachnida: Araneae) of Kerkyra (Corfu) and update of the provisional checklist of species from the Ionian Island. Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society 38 (1, suppl.): 1-51 pdf

Lecigne S, Moutaouakil S, Lips J (2025) Contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of Morocco (Arachnida: Araneae) – second note. On new species and new records from caves and miscellaneous terrestrial ecosystems. Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society 40(1, supplement): 1-184 pdf

Levy G (1998c) The ground-spider genera Setaphis, Trachyzelotes, Zelotes, and Drassyllus (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in Israel. Israel Journal of Zoology 44: 93-158 pdf

Milosevic B (2002) Aranea – Popis vrsta – Checklist. Hrvatsko entomološko društvo – Inventar entomofaune Hrvatske [Aranea – List of species – Checklist. Croatian Entomological Society – Inventory of Croatian entomofauna]. pdf

Otto S (2022) Caucasian spiders. A faunistic database on the spiders of the Caucasus Ecoregion. Database version 02.2022. Internet: caucasus-spiders.info.

Pfliegler W A, Schönhofer A, Niedbała W, Vella P, Sciberras A, Vella A (2017) New records of mites (Acari) and harvestmen (Opiliones) from Malta with a preliminary checklist of Maltese Arachnida. Soil Organisms 89: 85-110 pdf

Platnick N I, Shadab M U (1983) A revision of the American spiders of the genus Zelotes (Araneae, Gnaphosidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 174: 97-192 pdf

Ponomarev A V (2022) Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of the southeast of the Russian Plain: catalogue, the fauna specific features. SSC RAS Publishers, Rostov-on-Don, 640 pp. pdf

Ponomarev A V, Alekseev S K, Kozminykh V O, Shmatko V Y (2017a) Spiders (Arachnida: Aranei) of Stavropol Province, Russia. Arthropoda Selecta 26: 155-173 pdf

Simon E (1914) Les arachnides de France 6 (1). Paris (Roret): 1-308 pdf

WSC (2026) World Spider Catalog. Version 27. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (20.5.2026) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Updates
26-02-2026 Datasheet update Detail
10-08-2025 Distribution update Detail
04-06-2025 Distribution update Detail
13-05-2025 Image insert
02-12-2024 Distribution update Detail
21-09-2023 Image insert
21-09-2023 Distribution update Detail
12-01-2023 Distribution update Detail
21-11-2022 Distribution update Detail
22-09-2022 Distribution insert Detail
14-07-2022 Distribution update Detail
20-03-2019 Image insert
17-11-2018 Distribution update Detail
16-05-2018 Distribution update Detail
30-12-2017 Distribution update Detail