Gnaphosidae  Banks, 1892 / Zelotes  Gistel, 1848   132 species

Zelotes aurantiacus Miller, 1967

Description

Male palp with bent tip of keel. Embolus short and robust. Epigyne with pointed S-shaped cuticular fold, running back posteriorly. Prosoma orange-yellow, with black hairs. Femur and tarsus brown, other leg segments black-brown. Opisthosoma grey, with 3 pairs of bright spots and small grey scuticula.

Body length male: 4-5 mm
Body length female: 4.1 mm
Additional information

Open forests, calcareous steppes

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Central to eastern Europe, Turkey
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List
Austria   (Thaler & Knoflach, 2004b) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Germany   (Blick et al., 2016) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Romania   (Weiss & Petrișor, 1999) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Eastern   (no references) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Serbia   (Grbić et al., 2015) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 1999) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) |||
References

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

Blick T, Finch O-D, Harms K H, Kiechle J, Kielhorn K-H , Kreuels M, Malten A, Martin D, Muster C, Nährig D, Platen R, Rödel I, Scheidler M, Staudt A, Stumpf H, Tolke D (2016) Rote Liste und Gesamtartenliste der Spinnen (Arachnida: Araneae) Deutschlands. 3. Fassung, Stand April 2008, einzelne Änderungen und Nachträge bis August 2015. Naturschutz und Biologische Vielfalt 70/4: 383-510 pdf

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2025a) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2025 [last updated 01 December 2025], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Gajdoš P, Svatoň J, Sloboda J (1999) Katalóg pavúkov Slovenska. Catalogue of Slovakian spiders. Ústav kr. ekol. SAV, Bratislava, 337 pp.

Grbić G, Hänggi A, Savić D (2015) New faunistic records of spiders (Arachnida, Areneae [sic]) from the Fruška Gora mountain, northern Serbia. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 67: 479-486 pdf

Grimm U (1985) Die Gnaphosidae Mitteleuropas (Arachnida, Araneae). Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg (NF) 26: 1-318 pdf

Kielhorn K-H, Förster T, Grimm H (2026) Beiträge zur Fauna des Kyffhäusergebirges. Teil XXI: Die Spinnen des Kyffhäusers (Arachnida, Araneae). Thüringer Faunistische Abhandlungen 30: 39-56 pdf

Miller F (1967) Studien über die Kopulationsorgane der Spinnengattung Zelotes, Micaria, Robertus und Dipoena nebst Beschreibung einiger neuen oder unvollkommen bekannten Spinnenarten. Přírodovědné práce ústavů Československé Akademie Věd v Brně (N.S.) 1: 251-298 pdf

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

Polchaninova N, Prokopenko E (2019) An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57: 60-64 & App 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, Khnykin A S (2013) Spiders (Aranei) of Volgograd sity and its environs. The South of Russia: Ecology, Development 2013(4): 109-136 pdf

Ponomarev A V, Shmatko V Y (2019a) A review of spiders of the genus Zelotes Gistel, 1848 of the subterraneus-group (Aranei: Gnaphosidae) from the Caucasus and Ciscaucasia. Caucasian Entomological Bulletin 15: 3-22 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

Samu F, Szinetár C (1999) Bibliographic check list of the Hungarian spider fauna. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 161-184 pdf

Thaler K, Knoflach B (2004b) Zur Faunistik der Spinnen (Araneae) von Österreich: Gnaphosidae, Thomisidae (Dionycha pro parte). Linzer Biologische Beiträge 36: 417-484 pdf

Weiss I, Petrișor A (1999) List of the spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Romania. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 41: 79-107 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
13-03-2026 Image insert
10-03-2026 Image insert
10-08-2025 Distribution update Detail
08-08-2021 Image insert
30-09-2019 Image insert
05-01-2016 Distribution update Detail
24-09-2015 Distribution update Detail