Metellina merianae (Scopoli, 1763)

Fomichev, Alexander A., 2020, New data on spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) from the caves of Southwestern Siberia (Russia), Acta Biologica Sibirica 6, pp. 429-436 : 429

Metellina merianae (Scopoli, 1763)

Fig. 6

Material examined.

1♂ [1], 1♂ 2♀ 1juv. [2a], 2♂ 2♀ [2b].

Distribution.

This is a troglophilic species ( Mammola et al. 2018). Metellina merianae is widespread in Europe ( Nentwig et al. 2020) and is reported east to Urals ( Mikhailov 2013) and the Altai Mountains ( Levina and Mikhailov 2004). It was reported from the caves of Iran, the Caucasus, the Crimea, the Russian Plain and the Urals ( Marusik et al. 2014; Turbanov et al. 2016). Outside the caves, this species occurs in the shaded habitats with boulders, along the creeks and in the cellars ( Marusik et al. 2014). In the northern part of the Altai Mountains it was collected along a swampy stream in a birch forest ( Levina and Mikhailov 2004). The species reported from the Novosibirsk Oblast (Barsukovskaya Cave) for the first time. Records in the Barsukovskaya and Gavrilovskaya II Caves represent the northeasternmost localities of its distribution range.

Figures

Figures 1 - 10. 1 - 5 Improphantes improbulus. 6 - Live Metellina merianae in Gavrilovskaya II Cave, feeding on Diptera. 7 - Letuchikh Myshei Cave. 8 - Gavrilovskaya II Cave. 9 - 10 - The map of caves where spiders were searched for. Filled circles - caves where spiders were collected; open circles - caves where no spiders were found. The numbers of caves correspond to that in the material and methods. Frame on Fig. 10 refers to Fig. 9. 1 - Habitus, dorsal. 2 - 3, 5 - Epigyne, ventral, dorsal and lateral. 4 - Abdomen with intact epigyne. Scale bars: 0.2 mm (1); 0.05 mm (2 - 3, 5); 0.1 mm (4).