New taxonomic and faunistic data on the funnel-weavers (Araneae, Agelenidae) of Turkiye and the Caucasus, with five new species

Abstract

<p> New taxonomic and faunistic data on the agelenid spiders of Turkiye and the Caucasus are provided. Five species are described as new to science: <em>Maimuna antalyensis</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Turkiye: Antalya), <em>Tegenaria ballarini</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Turkiye: Antalya), <em>T. beyazcika</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Turkiye: Antalya), <em>T. egrisiana</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Georgia: Imereti), and <em>T. hoeferi</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Armenia: Kotayk). <em>Tegenaria lazarovi</em> Dimitrov, 2020, <strong>syn. nov.</strong> is proposed as a new junior synonym of <em>T. averni</em> Brignoli, 1978. <em>Persiscape caucasica</em> (Guseinov, Marusik & Koponen, 2005) is newly reported from Armenia, and <em>T. chumachenkoi</em> Kovblyuk & Ponomarev, 2008 is reported for the first time from Turkiye. New distribution records for <em>T. dalmatica</em> Kulczyński, 1906, <em>T. hamid</em> Brignoli, 1978, <em>T. longimana</em> Simon, 1898 and <em>T. percuriosa</em> Brignoli, 1972, and topotype material for <em>T. tekke</em> Brignoli, 1978 are reported. The record of <em>Eratigena fuesslini</em> (Pavesi, 1873) from Turkiye is found to be based on a misidentification, and is herein attributed to <em>T. hamid</em>. The presence of an embolic spine, unknown in any other species of <em>Tegenaria</em>, is documented in <em>T. anhela</em> Brignoli, 1972 for the first time. Photographs are provided for all treated species. <br></p>