Gnaphosidae  Banks, 1892 / Zelotes  Gistel, 1848   132 species

Zelotes aeneus (Simon, 1878)

Description
Male

Male palp with very long and thin keel-tip, reaching margin of cymbium. Prosoma light brown to dark red-brown. Legs slightly brighter than body colour. Femur I with bright spot. Opisthosoma light brown to dark red-brown, with dark brown scuticula.

Body length male: 4.7-7.4 mm
Female

Epigyne only slightly sclerotised, mainly in posterior area. Anterior margin reduced to 2 small semi-circles. 

Body length female: 5.3-7.3 mm
Additional information

In rocky and steppe heathland

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Madeira, Europe, Turkey, Azerbaijan
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List
Austria   (Thaler & Knoflach, 2004b) ||| Azerbaijan  Removed (Otto, 2022; Nuruyeva & Zamani, 2025) ||| Belarus   (Ivanov, 2013) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Germany   (Blick et al., 2016) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Lithuania   (Biteniekytė & Rėlys, 2012) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Netherlands   (van Helsdingen, 2025a) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Urák & Fetykó, 2006) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 1999) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Switzerland   (Maurer & Hänggi, 1990) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Özdemir et al., 2006; Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) |||
References

Biteniekytė M, Rėlys V (2012) The checklist of Lithuanian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae). Biologija 57: 148-158 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

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

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

Crespo L C, Cardoso P, Henriques S, Gaspar C (2009b) Spiders (Araneae) from Porto Santo (Madeira, Portgal): Additions to the current knowledge. Boletín de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa 45: 471-475 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

Di Franco F (2002) New data on four little-known species of the genus Zelotes Gistel, 1848 (Araneae, Gnaphosidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 12: 196-200 pdf

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

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

Helsdingen P J van (2025a) Catalogus van de Nederlandse spinnen. Versie 2025.1. 249 pp. 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

Ivanov V V (2013) The checklist of Belarusian spiders (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoology and Ecology 4: 293-311 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

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

Maurer R, Hänggi A (1990) Katalog der schweizerischen Spinnen. Documenta Faunistica Helvetiae 12 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

Miller F, Svatoň J (1978) Einige seltene und bisher unbekannte Spinnenarten aus der Slowakei. Annotationes Zoologicae et Botanicae Bratislava 126: 1-19 pdf

Muster C, Thaler K (2000) Das Männchen von Zelotes zellensis Grimm (Araneae: Gnaphosidae). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 107: 579-589 pdf

Nuruyeva T, Zamani A (2025) An annotated checklist of the spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Azerbaijan. Zootaxa 5680: 1-168 pdf

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

Özdemir A, Varol I, Akan Z, Kütük M, Kutbay F, Özaslan M (2006) The fauna of spider (Araneae) in the Nizip and Karkamis – Gaziantep (Turkey). Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment 20: 74-77 pdf

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

Roberts M J (1998) Spinnengids. Tirion, Baarn, Netherlands, 397 pp. pdf

Rozwałka R, Stanska M (2008) Check-list of spiders (Araneae) of Poland. 1. December 2008. online at http://www.arachnologia.edu.pl/en/species/8-spiders-of-poland.html 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

Tutar O, Yağmur E A (2023) Spider (Araneae) fauna of İzmir Peninsula (Çeşme, Karaburun, Urla), Türkiye. Serket 19: 197-222 pdf

Urák I, Fetykó K (2006) Arachnological studies in the Retezat National Park (Romania). Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research 3: 79-88 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

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