Zygiella, Pickard-Cambridge, 1902

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 : 241

ZYGIELLA PICKARD- CAMBRIDGE, 1902

Araneus Clerck, 1757 , description of Araneus x-notatus (= Zygiella x-notata ); Epeira Sundevall, 1833 , description of Epeira calophylla (= Zygiella x-notata ); Zilla C.L. Koch, 1839 , description of Zilla calophylla (= Zygiella x-notata ); Eucharia C.L. Koch, 1845 , description of Eucharia atrica (= Zygiella atrica ); Zygia Menge, 1866 , description of Zygia atrica (= Zygiella atrica ); Parazygiella Wunderlich, 2004 syn. nov., description of Parazygiella montana (= Zygiella montana ).

Remarks

Because the mutually paraphyletic Parazygiella and Zygiella together form a well-supported clade, we synonymize Parazygiella Wunderlich, 2004 with Zygiella Pickard-Cambridge, 1902 . Based on morphology, Levi (1974) doubted that Zygiella calyptrata (Workman & Workman, 1894) is related to other Zygiella species. Although our analyses did not include Z. calyptrata , this species might be related to Yaginumia (see Appendix 2), based on its distribution.

Type species

Eucharia atrica C.L. Koch, 1845 .

Diagnosis

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

Description

Females small to medium in size (3–6.5 mm body length), males same size (Levi, 1974). Female epigynum without a scape, male embolus tip cylindrical (Levi, 1974: 2–7, 9–11, 13–25, 28–39, 51–56, 60–64, 67–69, 73–78). Carapace yellowish brown to light brown, head region much darker to only slightly darker, many times only with a median black band, chelicerae dark brown. Sternum dark brown, mostly with a light-brown median band. Abdomen yellowish brown to greyish brown, sometimes with silver pigment spots, dorsally with a wave- edged darker area that is sometimes darker only at the edges. Legs yellowish brown to brown, lightly annulated dark brown (own data; 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 by a signal line (Levi, 1974; Gregoricˇ et al., 2010).

Composition

Following the revised phylogeny here, the genus includes: Zygiella atrica (C.L. Koch, 1845) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Central and Northern Europe, and Russia. Introduced to Canada and USA; Zygiella calyptrata (Workman & Workman, 1894) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, China, Myanmar, Malaysia; Zygiella carpenteri (Archer, 1951) comb. nov., for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, USA; Zygiella dispar (Kulczyn´ ski, 1885) comb. nov.; for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Holarctic; Zygiella keyserlingi (Ausserer, 1871) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Southern Europe, Ukraine; Zygiella kirgisica Bakhvalov, 1974 , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Bakhalov (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Kyrgyzstan; Zygiella minima Schmidt, 1968 , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Canary Islands; Zygiella montana (C.L. Koch, 1834) comb. nov., for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Palaearctic; Zygiella nearctica Gertsch, 1964 , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Gertsch (1964) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Alaska, Canada, and USA; Zygiella pulcherrima (Zawadsky, 1902) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Zawadsky (1902) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Russia; Zygiella x-notata (Clerck, 1757) , for synonymies and diagnosis, see Levi (1974) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Holarctic, Neotropical; Zygiella x-notata chelata (Franganillo, 1909), for synonymies and diagnosis, see Franganillo (1909) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Portugal; Zygiella x-notata percechelata (Franganillo, 1909), for synonymies and diagnosis, see Franganillo (1909) and World Spider Catalog (2015); distribution, Portugal.