Pholcidae  C. L. Koch, 1850 / Spermophora  Hentz, 1841   2 species

Spermophora senoculata  (Dugès, 1836)

Description
Male

Palp very particular: tibia at least twice as long as broad, tarsus with a large apophysis divided into 3 branches, bulb with 2 long apophyses. Prosoma 1 mm long. Prosoma almost colourless, whitish with saffron-coloured spot. Opisthosoma globular, white or with 3 pairs of vague, darker spots.

Female

Prosoma whitish with 2 faint brownish marks. Prosoma 1.2 mm long. Opisthosoma very globular, white with 3 pairs of faint darker spots.

Body length female: 2.1 mm
Additional information

Under stones, in stone walls and caves, in northern regions in buildings.

This species of Asian (Middle East) origin is not native to Europe (alien species). It had been introduced to Europe at least once and did establish.

Troglophile species (Mammola et al., 2022)

Distribution
  Presence
  Not established
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Middle East. Introduced to USA, Jamaica, southern Europe, China, Korea, Japan
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List

"No references" does not mean that the species does not occur in this country, but that we have not yet inserted the reference for it. We are working on it.

Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Greece   (no references) ||| Greece / Crete   (no references) ||| Hungary   (Kovács et al., 2008) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019; Schifani et al., 2019) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Montenegro   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Komnenov, 2014) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Moscaliuc, 2012) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Serbia   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Tunisia   (Dimassi et al., 2016) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024; Kunt et al., 2012) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Demircan & Topçu, 2016) ||| Ukraine   (no references) |||
References

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

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, 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

Bosmans R, Van Keer K (2017) Een herziene soortenlijst van de Belgische spinnen (Araneae). Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 32: 39-69 pdf

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

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2024) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2024 [last updated 01 January 2024], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

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

Dimassi N. Ezzine I K, Khadra Y B, Zellama M S, Othmen A B, Said K (2016) A new record of spider species from Tunisia (Arachnida: Araneae). Journal of Research in Biological Sciences 2: 13-29 pdf

Dresco E, Hubert M (1969) Araneae speluncarum italiae I. Fragmenta Entomologica 6: 167-181 pdf

Heimer S, Nentwig W (1991) Spinnen Mitteleuropas. Paul Parey Berlin pdf

Komnenov M (2014) Spider fauna of the Osogovo Mt. Range, Northeastern Macedonia. Fauna Balkana 2: 1-267 pdf

Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91 pdf

Kovács G, Szinetár C, Eichardt J (2008) Data on the biology of pale cellar spider (Spermophora senoculata [Dugés, 1836]) (Araneae: Pholcidae). A Nyme Savaria Egyetemi Központ Tudományos Közleményei XVI. Természettudományok 11(Biológia): 125-135 pdf

Kunt K B, Kaya R S, Özkütük R S, Danişman T, Yağmur E A, Elverici M (2012) Additional notes on the spider fauna of Turkey (Araneae). Turkish Journal of Zoology 36: 637-651 pdf

Mammola S, Pavlek M, Huber B A, Ballarin F, Tolve M, Čupić I, Hesselberg T, Lunghi E, Mouron S, Graco-Roza C, Cardoso P (2022) A trait database and updated checklist for European subterranean spiders. Scientific Data 9(236): 1-13 pdf

Miller F, Zitnanska O (1976) Einige bemerkenswerte Spinnen aus der Slowakei. Biológia (Bratislava) 31: 81-88 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

Moscaliuc L A (2012) New faunistic records of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria). Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 55: 9-15 pdf

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

Pantini P, Isaia M (2019) Araneae.it: the online catalog of Italian spiders, with addenda on other arachnid orders occurring in Italy (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Pseudoscorpionida, Scorpiones, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 51: 127-152 pdf

Pesarini C (unpubl.)

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

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

Schifani E, Dentici A, Alleruzzo L, Di Pompeo P (2019) Spermophora senoculata on Sicily/Italy (Araneae: Pholcidae). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 58: 6-8 pdf

WSC (2024) World Spider Catalog. Version 25.0. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (22.01.2024) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Updates
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