A survey of the spider genus Dysdera Latreille, 1804 (Araneae, Dysderidae) in Iran, with fourteen new species and notes on two fossil genera

Abstract

<p> The taxonomy of the Iranian species of the dysderid spider genus <em>Dysdera</em> Latreille, 1804 is revised. Currently, the only species of this genus known from Iran is <em>D. pococki</em> Dunin, 1985, albeit on the basis of a doubtful record. The following 14 species are described as new to science in this paper: <em>D. achaemenes</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♀; Fars), <em>D. bakhtiari</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari), <em>D. damavandica</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Mazandaran), <em>D. genoensis</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Hormozgan), <em>D. hormuzensis</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♀; Hormozgan), <em>D. iranica</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Fars, Hormozgan), <em>D. isfahanica</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Isfahan), <em>D. mazeruni</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♀; Mazandaran), <em>D. medes</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Tehran), <em>D. persica</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Golestan, Mazandaran), <em>D. sagartia</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Tehran), <em>D. tapuria</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂♀; Mazandaran), <em>D. verkana</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Golestan), and <em>D. xerxesi</em> <strong>sp. nov.</strong> (♂; Bushehr). Distribution records of all species are mapped. Also, the taxonomy of <em>Mistura</em> Petrunkevitch, 1971 and <em>Segistriites</em> Straus, 1967, two fossil genera currently considered in Dysderidae, is discussed and the latter is transferred to Segestriidae. <br></p>