A first synthesis of South America spider (Araneae) fauna: endemism, diversity, and taxonomy

Describing and understanding the diversity of South American spiders is a huge challenge in many aspects, starting with the sheer number of species of a megadiverse group, and the geographic span and variety of habitats, from tropical rainforests, deserts, Pampas, to Valdivian temperate forests. Where do we stand in this titanic task? Nadine Dupérré’s (2022a) synopsis in this special issue provides a much-needed pause to examine the previous work and extract some conclusions and projections and provides a one-stop summary that will be useful for decades. I found enlightening, for example, her analysis of invasive species in and from South America, and how it relates to dispersal abilities and endemicity. After reading her summary, one feels (or hope), that we will see a large portion of the South American spider taxonomy nearly solved in our lifetime. How would that be possible? Spider taxonomists make a vibrant scientific community (see Platnick and Raven 2013; Jäger et al. 2021), and we can be deservedly proud of important achievements, such as the World Spider Catalogue (World Spider Catalog 2022), an online resource professionally curated by an international committee of expert collaborators, updated on a daily basis and providing access to all the taxonomic literature. Taxonomic expertise is especially alive in South America, probably because several countries have invested for many years in positions for arachnologists. This was effectively reflected in the 557 participants in the last South American Congresses of Arachnology in Buenos Aires, 2020, of which about 110 were professionals based locally; there were about 150 regular presentations on systematics and biogeography of arachnids, an enviable number for a regional meeting.

In the second contribution to this special issue, Dupérré (2022b) provides excellent illustrations of type-bearing specimens of the South American fauna preserved in European collections, mainly those described by Eugène Simon and Lucien Berland in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Along with the illustrations and basic label data, Dupérré provides expert opinion on many of the species, making the new combinations according to current systematic knowledge and designating lectotypes when necessary. This contribution, along with her previous ones (Dupérré and Harms 2018; Dupérré and Tapia 2021), are immensely important for easing revisionary taxonomic studies in the region, as studying type specimens is fundamental for taxonomy, yet an expensive and laborious task. Those publications are a perfect example of an attitude of the spider research community that explains its success – openness and cooperation. All of us, professionals and students, have benefited from a community inclined to help just for the enthusiasm of seeing progress in arachnological studies. Such a friendly community is not common to all science; it was grown and maintained by the work of many, starting with the cataloguers of the past and today, and reproduced in hundreds of labs all over the world. I just praise Nadine Dupérré for taking up the cause of sharing high-quality data on old-type specimens, and in this way, helping solve the taxonomic impediment in the region.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica [grant number PICT-2019-2745].