Artema ziaretana

Huber, Bernhard A., 2009, Four new generic and 14 new specific synonymies in Pholcidae, and transfer of Pholcoides Roewer to Filistatidae (Araneae), Zootaxa 1970, pp. 64-68 : 67

Artema ziaretana (Roewer, 1960) new combination

Pholciella ziaretana Roewer , 1960: 42-43, figs. 13 a–d.

Type material. 1 juvenile holotype, "Ziaret Ghourambar" (near Jalalabad) , Afghanistan; under stones on hill, 5.i.1958, with original label " Pholciella n. g., ziaretana n. sp., 1 ♀ Typus A 436 ", in Naturhistoriska Museet, Göteborg, Sweden, examined .

Justification of synonymy. The juvenile specimen shows all the characters typical for Artema : high globose abdomen , distinctive arrangement of large black marks on abdomen, large anterior median eyes, deep thoracic groove, large body size. The only similar genus in mainland Asia is Tibetia Zhang, Zhu & Song, 2006, a genus that itself may be a synonym of Artema . Artema is now composed of five nominal species, including two from Afghanistan ( A. magna Roewer , 1960 and A. ziaretana ), but the genus has never been revised and except for the cosmopolitan A. atlantica Walckenaer , all species are very poorly known.