Linyphiidae  Blackwall, 1859 / Mermessus  O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899   4 species

Mermessus trilobatus  (Emerton, 1882)

Description

Tibial apophysis rounded. Epigyne with caudally protruding lateral plates. Prosoma yellow-brown to orange-brown. Sternum orange. Legs brown to orange-brown. Opisthosoma grey to black.

Body length male: 1.6-2.1 mm
Body length female: 1.6-2.1 mm
Additional information

In meadows, in litter layer of forests, in humid areas and sandy beaches. Widely distributed in North America, presumably imported to south-western Germany in the 1970ies by the US Army and dispersed from there.

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

Character states from linyphiid key
Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): North America. Introduced to Azores, Europe
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.

Austria   (no references) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Croatia   (Mandic , unpubl.) ||| Czechia   (Řezáč et al., 2021; Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (Lissner & Scharff, 2019) ||| Estonia   (Sammet et al., 2023) ||| France   (no references) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Hungary   (Mezőfi & Markó, 2018) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Liechtenstein   (Frick, unpubl.) ||| Lithuania   (Biteniekytė et al., 2021) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Moldova   (Vasiliev & Mikhailov, 2023) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka, 2010) ||| Serbia   (Grbić et al., 2021) ||| Slovakia   (Šestáková et al., 2017) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Ukraine   (Hirna, 2017a) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Biteniekytė M, Valiulis J J, Skujienė G (2021) First record of Mermessus trilobatus (Emerton, 1882) (Araneae, Linyphiidae) in Lithuania. Bulletin of the Lithuanian Entomological Society 5: 114-117 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

Frick H (unpubl.) .

Grbić G, Hänggi A, Krnjajić S (2021) Spiders (Araneae) of Subotica Sandland (Serbia): additional arguments in environmental protection. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 67: 15-61 pdf

Helsdingen P J van (1982a) Eperigone trilobata revealed as a trans-American species. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 5: 393-396 pdf

Hirna A (2017a) First record of the alien spider species Mermessus trilobatus (Araneae: Linyphiidae) in Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 54: 41-43 pdf

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

Kreuels M, Staudt A, Christian S (2019) Die Spinnenfauna von Luxemburg – eine Zusammenstellung der Nachweise aus den Jahren 1906-2018 (Arachnida: Araneae). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 121: 203-230 pdf

Lavery A (2019) A revised checklist of the spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Arachnology 18: 196-212 pdf

Lissner J, Scharff N (2019) Danish Spiders. Formerly online at http://www.danmarks-edderkopper.dk pdf

Løvbrekke H (unpubl.)

Mandic A (unpubl.) .

Mezőfi L, Markó V (2018) Some rare and remarkable spider species from Hungary (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 55: 1-9 pdf

Millidge A F (1987) The Erigonine spiders of North America. Part 8. The Genus Eperigone Crosby and Bishop (Araneae, Linyphiidae). American Museum Novitates 2885: 1-75 pdf

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

Rehfeldt S, Cassar T (2024) A contribution to the arachnofauna (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones) of the Maltese Islands, with two new records for Europe. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 67: 18-47 pdf

Řezáč M, Růžička V, Hula V, Dolanský J, Machač O, Roušar A (2021) Spiders newly observed in Czechia in recent years – overlooked or invasive species? BioInvasions Records 10: 555-566 pdf

Rozwałka R (2010) Mermessus trilobatus (Emerton, 1882) (Araneae: Linyphiidae) – a new spider species to the Polish fauna. Przegląd Zoologiczny 52-54: 163-166 pdf

Růžička V, Řezáč M (2022a) Seznam pavouků České republiky. List of spiders of the Czech Republic. Online at https://www.arachnology.cz/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html and https://www.arachnology.cz/en/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html pdf

Sammet K, Martinez M R, Tali K, Melts I (2023) New records of arthropods from the priority Natura 2000 habitats in Estonian coastal areas. Check List 19: 1029-1048 pdf

Šestáková A, Suvák M, Krajčovičová K, Kaňuchová A, Christophoryová J (2017) Arachnids from the greenhouses of the Botanical Garden of the PJ Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Pseudoscorpiones). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 53: 19-28 pdf

Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342 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

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