Zelotes Gistel, 1848

Fomichev, Alexander A. & Marusik, Yuri M., 2021, A survey of East Palaearctic Gnaphosidae (Araneae). 11. New data on Gnaphosidae (Araneae) from Tajikistan, Zootaxa 4966 (4), pp. 443-457 : 450-451

Zelotes Gistel, 1848

Type species. Melanophora subterranea C.L. Koch, 1833 from Germany .

Comments. With 392 valid species (WSC 2021), Zelotes is the most speciose genus of the family. Although it has never been the subject of a global revision, during the last 50 years over 200 species previously classified in this genus have been transferred to other genera, including new ones: Aponetius Kamura, 2020 , Civizelotes Senglet, 2012 , Heser Tuneva 2004 , and Marinarozelotes Ponomarev, 2020 . Still, the genus remains paraphyletic, judging by the shape of the copulatory organs. One of the distinct species groups that doesn’t depict much similarity to the generotype is the puritanus group, which accommodates at least ten species known primarily from the Palaearctic (one species has a Holarctic range). We consider the following species in this group: Z. anatolyi sp. n.; Z. gussakovskyi Charitonov, 1951 ; Z. khatlonicus sp. n.; Z. mikhailovi Marusik, 1995 ; Z. parascrutatus Levy, 1998 ; Z. potanini Schenkel, 1963 ; Z. puritanus Chamberlin, 1922 ; Z. scrutatus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 ; Z. zin Levy, 1998 and possibly Z. hummeli Schenkel, 1963 .

This group is characterized by solid, anteriorly rounded wide epigynal pockets (=hoods), elongate epigynal fovea rounded posteriorly, blunt tibial apophysis, and embolus being covered by “intercalary” sclerite (=part of embolic division).