Leviellus, WUNDERLICH, 2004

Gregorič, Matjaž, Agnarsson, Ingi, Blackledge, Todd A. & Kuntner, Matjaž, 2015, Phylogenetic position and composition of Zygiellinae and Caerostris, with new insight into orb-web evolution and gigantism, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 175 (2), pp. 225-243 : 240

LEVIELLUS WUNDERLICH, 2004

Stroemiellus Wunderlich, 2004 syn. nov., description of Stroemiellus stroemi (= Leviellus stroemi ).

Remarks

Because Stroemiellus as a monotypic genus does not contain grouping information, we synonymize Stroemiellus Wunderlich, 2004 with Leviellus Wunderlich, 2004 . Leviellus sp. (code ZYG311; Appendix S1) from our data set is likely to represent a juvenile female Zygiella poriensis Levy, 1987 , collected near the type locality of the species. Based on the results of our analyses and the genital morphology of Z. poriensis (epigynal scape), we transfer the species to Leviellus .

Type species

Zygiella kochi Thorell, 1870 .

Diagnosis

Species of Leviellus differ from Zygiella by the male palpal embolus tip being flat rather than cylindrical, and by the presence of female epigynal scape.

Description

Females small to large in size (3–10 mm body length), males same size (Levi, 1974). Female epigynum with a scape, male embolus tip flat (Levi, 1974: 71–72, 81– 83, 85–86, 88–91, 93–94, 96–101, 104–110; Levy, 1987: 17–25, 30–33). Carapace light brown, head region slightly darker, often outlined in black, chelicerae dark brown. Sternum dark brown with a light-brown median band. Abdomen grey to brown, dorsally with a wave-edged darker area that sometimes contains a whitish median band. Legs light brown to brown, annulated dark brown to black (Gregoricˇ, pers. observ.; Nentwig et al., 2014). Orb webs with a spiral-free sector. During the day, the spiders hide off of the web in a tubular silk retreat, connected to the web hub with a signal line (Levi, 1974; Gregoricˇ, Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2010).

Composition

Following the revised phylogeny here, the genus includes: Leviellus caspica (Simon, 1889) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Central Asia; Leviellus inconveniens (Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Lebanon, Israel; Leviellus kochi (Thorell, 1870) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Southern Europe, North Africa, Central Asia; Leviellus poriensis (Levy, 1987) comb. nov., for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levy (1987) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Israel; Leviellus stroemi (Thorell, 1870) comb. nov., for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Palaearctic; Leviellus thorelli (Ausserer, 1871) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Europe.