Thiratoscirtina Bodner & Maddison, 2012

Szűts, Tamás & Maddison, Wayne Paul, 2021, New species of the monotypic thiratoscirtine genera Ajaraneola and Nimbarus (Araneae: Salticidae: Aelurillini: Thiratoscirtina), Zootaxa 4915 (1), pp. 119-126 : 120

Subtribe Thiratoscirtina Bodner & Maddison, 2012

Remarks. The Thiratoscirtina is a major species-rich group in African tropical forests – e.g., more than 52 species were found in 17 days of field work in Gabon by the second author – and yet its genera received little attention before Wanda Wesołowska began studying them. Of those 52 Gabonese species, we are able to confidently place fewer than half into described genera. Uncertainty in the group’s generic limits is heightened by their unusually variable genitalia, by the lack of taxonomic synthesis between vouchers of molecular data ( Bodner & Maddison 2012), and by the growing number of named taxa. Faced with this, we could decide to stop describing species until genera are settled, to describe a new genus for each species of unclear affinity, or to place new species tentatively into existing genera. Describing species is so important for conservation and comparative biology that we do not want to hold back descriptions. We have thus chosen to describe two species here tentatively in Ajaraneola and Nimbarus , even though we must admit that their generic placements may change.