Two new troglobitic species of the genus Telema (Araneae, Telemidae) from Guizhou, southwestern China

Abstract

Two new species of Telema are described, from caves in Xinyi City and Cheheng County, Guizhou, southwestern China: T. feilong sp. nov., T. zhewang sp. nov. Male and female genitalia and other taxonomically important characters are illustrated. Some comparisons are made between these species and similar taxa. In addition, some notes on their ecology and the distribution of Chinese Telema are also presented. Telema are recorded from three scattered localities, Hunan Province, Guizhou Province and Hannan Province, in China.

Keywords:

• Telemidae
• new species
• troglobite
• China

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to L.F. Yu (Forestry College of Guizhou University), T. Fan (Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Y.S. Ling and M.L. Zhang [Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (IKG)], who supported our biospeleology studies in Guizhou province The Bureau of the Maolan National Natural Reserve assisted in the speleological explorations and collection of specimens. This project was supported in part by the Spider Diversity of Guizhou province project, funded by the Guizhou provincial Science Foundation (2005–2019), and the Cave Creature of Maolan project, funded by the Karst Dynamics Laboratory Foundation of IKG (2005–8-2). We thank Xin-ping Wang (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL) for reading the manuscript and three anonymous reviewers for helping to improve the manuscript.