Studies On Cave Spider (Araneae) From Guizhou, China

The purpose of this paper is to summarize and analyze data derived from the cave spider of Guizhou Province, compared the Guizhou cave spider fauna to other regions, and extensively discussed the origins and relations of the cave spider faunas. An updated overview of the province cave zoogeography is provided based on the plate tectonics, terrane elements and geological evidences propose the Terrane Raft hypotheses. A survey of the cave spider fauna in Guizhou Province was carried out from 1995 to 2008 by the author, and he has collected many kinds of subterranean animals from many limestone caves under these backgrounds of IGCP project 379 (Karst Processes and the Carbon Cycle), the IGCP project 448 (World Correlation on Karst Geology and its Relevant Ecosystems) and the IGCP project 513 (Global Study of Karst Aquifers and Water Resources), and the Spider Diversity of Guizhou province project, funded by the Guizhou provincial Science Foundation (2005-2019), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No.30499341), the Cave Creature of Maolan project, funded by the Karst Dynamics Laboratory Foundation of IKG (2005-8-2). He has examined a large number of spiders collected from about 133 Guizhou caves during the past 13 years, and has already published some papers dealing with cave spiders. Up to the present,118 species of 44 genera belonging to 16 families were recoded from many limestone caves in Guizhou Province. In addition, two new genus and 42 new species are described from Guizhou Province and taxonomic and faunistic notes are given for some other species. The cave spider fauna of Guozhou Province is much different from Chinese other area. Guizhou is home to 76 species of cave spider of which 64.1% are endemic.The new cave spider taxa in Guizhou are:Tonsilla mopanensis sp. nov., Draconarius semirotundus sp. nov., Draconarius grossus sp. nov., Platocoelotes bipallium sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta gen. nov., Qianoleptoneta quinquespinata sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta triangulus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta nudus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta identicus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta lycotropus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta multisetus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta guiding sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta robustispinus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta palmatus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta sublunatus sp. nov., Qianoleptoneta megalodus sp. nov., Nesticus purila sp. nov., Nesticella breblestro sp. nov., Nesticella quattorblestro sp. nov., Nesticella shancha sp. nov., Nesticella tortus sp. nov., Nesticella circa sp. nov., Pholcus anlong sp. nov., Pholcus ceheng sp. nov., Pholcus xingren sp. nov., Pholcus xingyi sp. nov., Khorata xingyi sp. nov., Belisana douqing sp. nov., Belisana daji sp. nov., Belisana xishui sp. nov., Belisana yanhe sp. nov., Psechrus parakunmingensis sp. nov., Sinopoda mi sp. nov., Telema feilong sp. nov., Telema zhewang sp. nov., Okileucauge geminuscavum sp. nov., Karstia gen. nov., Karstia upperyangtzica sp. nov., Karstia coddingtoni (Zhu et al.,2001), new combination, Octonoba qiangui sp. nov. Octonoba legoforata sp. nov.