Selenopidae, Simon, 1897

Crews, Sarah C., Galvis, William, Torres, Richard A., Gutiérrez-Estrada, Miguel A., Sarmiento, Jessica & Esposito, Lauren A., 2021, The flattie spiders of the Selenops isopodus species group (Araneae: Selenopidae) with a review of Selenops records from Colombia, Zootaxa 4964 (1), pp. 61-82 : 75-76

Selenopidae in Colombia

In general, many South American selenopids appear to be widespread with no straightforward biogeographic barriers. It is difficult to determine if the small distributions of some species represent narrow areas of endemism, or if like most selenopids, they are poorly collected. In some cases, as with Selenops cocheleti Simon, 1880 and S. mexicanus Keyserling, 1880 , the spiders probably have moved around with people in the past and continue to do so (Crews 2011; Crews et al. 2016). In other species, like S. banksi Muma, 1953 , species are poorly collected but have an extremely broad distribution, probably due to their proclivity to live in the canopy (Crews et al. 2021). Some species appear to be restricted to small areas but eventually are found in other areas far away, and it may take a while to fill in the gap ( Crews and Harvey 2011). Currently, at least eight selenopid species are known from Colombia ( S. bullerengue sp. nov., S. curruganja Crews & Galvis 2021 , S. cocheleti , S. geraldinae Corronca, 1996 , S. isopodus , S. lavillai Corronca, 1996 , S. mexicanus , and S. sp. ‘leg tufts’—see below) with two being synanthropic ( S. cocheleti , S. mexicanus ) and two endemic ( S. bullerengue sp. nov., S. curruganja ). Given the distribution of S. banksi (Crews et al. 2021) , it is likely this species is also found in Colombia. Both sexes are not available for all known species, and there are localities from which only juveniles that cannot be determined to species are known, and at least one of these is a new record for the country or a new species. We are currently rearing juveniles of this species to determine its identity. Nevertheless, there is much more to discover.

Colombia exhibits the same patterns on a smaller scale within its borders as broader patterns of diversity on the South American continent: That is, many species are widespread and can be found syntopically with other widespread species and/or selenopid species with more restricted distributions. For example, it appears that S. isopodus is distributed (thus far) exclusively within the Cordillera Oriental and adjacent Caribbean coast, while S. bullerengue sp. nov. is thus far only know from the Caribbean coast. Continued and concentrated collecting efforts will help us to understand distributional patterns of selenopids in the region. Below we have provided records of all species of selenopids collected in Colombia to date as well as a map that also indicates unidentifiable juveniles ( Fig. 60 ). Some records come from the citizen science efforts of iNaturalist, which are useful for adding locality data for a poorly known group, as well as life history data (e.g.—life stages, time of year present, etc.). All images were examined by the first author, and if there were any doubts to the identity of the specimens in the images, they are only included as Selenops sp.

Figures

FIGURE 60. Map shows all known records of selenopids in Colombia (Col = Colombia; Ven = Venezuela; A = Aruba; B = Bonaire; C = Curaçao; pink square = S. arikok; yellow squares = S. isopodus; green squares = S. curazao; blue squares = S. bullerengue sp. nov.; white squares = member of isopodus group, but unclear which species; white diamond = undetermined juvenile; white diamond with orange border = a species for which we do not have adults, but it is clearly distinct; green circles = S. mexicanus; black circles = S. cocheleti; orange circles = S. curruganja; blue circles = S. geraldinae; red circle = S. lavillai.) Orange area indicates Cordillera Oriental as defined by Google Earth and references provided in the text.