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Trachelidae  Simon, 1897 / Metatrachelas  Bosselaers & Bosmans, 2010   3 species

Metatrachelas rayi (Simon, 1878)

WSC LSID urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:025540

Key to genera | Key to species

Description
Male

Prosoma reddish brown to chestnut brown, sides covered with small warts. Prosoma length: 1.39 mm. Chelicerae chestnut brown, promargin with 3 teeth, increasing in size towards base of fang, retromargin with 2 teeth. Sternum smooth, yellow-brown, with some small pits. Legs I-II ochre, legs III-IV pale yellow. Opisthosoma grey with a longitudinal, dagger-shaped dark grey mark enclosed between two oval white spots in anterior half and 4-6 white chevrons in posterior quarter, dorsal scutum absent.

Body length male: 2.40-3.10 mm
Female

Prosoma reddish brown, entirely covered with small warts. Prosoma length: 1.40 mm. Chelicerae as in males. Sternum smooth with some small pits, brown, margin darker. Legs and opisthosoma as in males.

Body length female: 2.6-3.8 mm
Additional information

In litter layer of sunny slopes with open vegetation and vineyards.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Algeria
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
species

male Pedipalp, ventral view
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

male Pedipalp, retrolateral view
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

male Habitus
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

female Epigyne, ventral view
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

female Epigyne, ventral view
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

female Vulva, ventral view
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

species

female Habitus
(Bosselaers et al. 2009)

Distribution List
Albania   (Naumova, 2020) ||| Algeria   (Bosselaers et al., 2009; Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| France   (Bosselaers et al., 2009) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Caria & Pantini, 2023) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) |||
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

Bosselaers J, Urones C, Barrientos J A, Alberdi J M (2009) On the Mediterranean species of Trachelinae (Araneae, Corinnidae) with a revision of Trachelas L. Koch 1872 on the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Arachnology 37: 15-38 pdf

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

Caria M, Pantini P (2023) Nuovi dati per l’araneofauna sarda (Arachnida: Araneae). Rivista del Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali "Enrico Caffi", Bergamo 36: 65-71 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

Naumova M (2020) Descriptions of two new spider species, with new data on the Albanian arachnofauna (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones and Scorpiones). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 72: 3-12 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
15-01-2024 Distribution insert Detail
28-03-2020 Distribution update Detail
28-03-2020 Distribution insert Detail