Notes on four corinnid species from Korea, with the description of Trachelas joopili new species (Arachnida: Araneae: Corinnidae)

Abstract

Four species and two genera of corinnid spiders are recognized from Korea and are described and illustrated. Castianeira shaxianensis Gong, 1983 has previously been synonymized with C. paikdoensis Kim, 1997 and is misidentified with C. flavimaculata Hu, Song and Zheng, 1985 in Korea. Trachelas acuminus (Zhu and An, 1988) is synonymized with Trachelas coreanus Paik, 1991 based on the copualtory duct, the position of the spermatheca and the shape of the circular genital opening of the female situated posteriorly near the epigastric furrow. Trachelas joopili, a new species, is described and is distinguished by the largely triangular apophysis and slender coiled modified cymbium at the basal and distal part, a large horn‐shaped tibial apophysis, and slender linear embolus, twice coiled along with slender distal cymbium. A map showing the distribution of these species and a key to the species of two genera (Castianeira and Trachelas) from Korea are provided.

Keywords:

• taxonomy
• ground spiders
• morphology
• Korea

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Prof. J. P. Kim of Dongguk University, Seoul, to Dr. X. Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to Prof. T. Kamura of Otemon Gakuin University, Japan for many valuable comments and providing several important papers. This research was financially supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant (KRF‐2006‐005‐J01901).