Linyphiidae, Blackwall, 1859

Paquin, Pierre, Vink, Cor J., Dupérré, Nadine, Sirvid, Phil J. & Court, David J., 2008, Nomina dubia and faunistic issues with New Zealand spiders (Araneae), Insecta Mundi 2008 (46), pp. 1-6 : 3

Linyphiidae

Linyphia albiapiata Urquhart 1891: 143 , no illustration. Nomen dubium.

Linyphia cruenta Urquhart 1891: 142 , no illustration. Nomen dubium.

Linyphia multicolor Urquhart 1891: 140 , no illustration. Nomen dubium.

Linyphia pellos Urquhart 1891: 146 , pl. XXI, fig. 10. Nomen dubium.

In his 1891 paper, Urquhart described five species that he placed in the genus Linyphia . One of these species was fairly well illustrated and is now placed in Mimetidae as Mimetus sennio ( Urquhart 1891) . Unfortunately, he did not provide illustrations for the other species except a dorsal view of the male palpal tibia of L. pellos . The text descriptions of Urquhart are long but do not allow the recognition of these species. All Urquhart’s known types are housed at CMNZ, but the types of these species could not be located ( Nicholls et al. 2000) and are now considered lost or destroyed. Given that New Zealand Linyphiidae have received recent taxonomic attention ( Blest 1979; Millidge 1988; Blest and Vink 2002, 2003) and that the species described by Urquhart are likely redescribed under another name, it seems best to conclude the following: (1) Urquhart’s original descriptions are inadequate for the recognition of these species; (2) the types are lost or destroyed; (3) these four species are best considered nomina dubia; (4) thus, there are no Linyphia in New Zealand.