Galina N. Azarkina

Description of a new Aelurillus species from Khorasan province of Iran, with comments on A. concolor Kulczyński, 1901 (Araneae: Salticidae)

A new species Aelurillus khorasanicus sp.n. (♂♀) is described from north-east Iran. Aelurillus muganicus Dunin, 1984 is synonymised with A. concolor Kulczyński, 1901. A distribution map of the two species is provided.

New data on the jumping spiders of the subfamily Spartaeinae (Araneae: Salticidae) from Africa

ABSTRACT Twelve species of the Spartaeinae from Africa are considered. Previously unknown sexes are described for three species: Cyrba nigrimana Simon, 1900 (♂); Meleon raharizonina Logunov & Azarkina, 2007 (♀); and Meleon russata (Simon, 1900) (♂). Three species, Cyrba lineata Wanless, 1984, Meleon madagascarensis (Wanless, 1978) and M. guineensis (Berland & Millot, 1941), are redescribed and illustrated on the basis of the type and newly collected specimens. New faunistic records are provided for seven species: Cyrba lineata Wanless, 1984 (South Africa); C. nigrimana Simon, 1900 (South Africa); C. simoni Wijesinghe, 1993 (Burundi); Holcolaetis zuluensis Lawrence, 1937 (South Africa); Meleon guineensis (Berland & Millot, 1941) (Congo); Portia africana (Simon, 1885) (Ivory Coast and Ghana); and P. schultzi Karsch, 1878 (Madagascar). One species, Meleon sp. (♀ from Uganda), remains undetermined.

A review of three Tusitala (Araneae: Salticidae) species from southern Africa, with a new synonymy and description of a new species from Botswana

ABSTRACT Two species of Tusitala Peckham & Peckham, 1902, largely sympatric throughout southern Africa, T. barbata Peckham & Peckham, 1902 and T. hirsuta Peckham & Peckham, 1902, are redescribed. One subspecies, T. barbata longipalpis syn. n., is synonymised with T. barbata. One new species, T. ansieae sp. n., is described from Botswana based on both sexes.

On the synonymy of two wolf spider species of the genus Alopecosa (Araneae, Lycosidae) from the steppe zone of Russia

Alopecosa atypica Ponomarev, 2008 is known from the holotype male collected in Western Kazakhstan. Here we synonymize it with A. cronebergi (Thorell, 1875), which was described from two syntype females from the Volga River and Daghestan. This species is redescribed in detail and its distribution is shown to be restricted to Russia and Ukraine, and previous records from Hungary are probably mistaken.

Redescription and a new synonym of the spider Pachygnatha amurensis Strand, 1907 (Araneae, Tetragnathidae, Tetragnathinae)

Pachygnatha Sundevall, 1823, with 43 species, is the second largest genus in the subfamily Tetragnathinae. This genus occurs in the Holarctic, Africa, South and South-East Asia (WSC 2015). One quarter of its species are known from a single sex: four species are known from females and seven from males. While studying Tetragnathidae of the Far East Marusik (1989) reported over a dozen specimens belonging to Pachygnatha amurensis Strand, 1907, a species previously known from the holotype male and the original description, which was not illustrated. Recently, Pachygnatha gaoi Zhu et al. , 2003 (Marusik et al. 2007) was reported from environs of Khabarovsk as a species new to Russia. Comparison of specimens identified as P. amurensis (through comparison with the holotype male) and P. gaoi revealed that they belong to the same species and the two names should be synonymised. The main goals of this paper are to provide detailed figures of P. amurensis , to synonymize P. gaoi known from both sexes and to survey the distribution of this species.

First description of the male of Alopecosa azsheganovae Esyunin, 1996 (Araneae: Lycosidae).

Alopecosa azsheganovae Esyunin, 1996 was described based on three females from Troitsk Wildlife Sanctuary (South Ural). This species was placed into the pulverulenta species group sensu Kronestedt (1990). After its description, it has been considered only in one publication by Esyunin & Tuneva (2012), who reported and illustrated two large (compared to the type series) females from the type locality. While studying material from Western Siberia, we found samples containing both sexes of A. azsheganovae . Therefore, we decided to redescribe the female and describe the previously unknown male of this species.