dufouri species group

Diagnosis. Opisthosoma ventrally with a distinct dark marking (Figs 48b, d; 49b, f); chelicerae without intermarginal denticles (Figs 13e, 15d, 23e); male palp with ST reduced in size and mostly not visible (Figs 12a, 15a, 17a, 20a, 22a); female epigyne with fused AMLL encircling MS entirely (Figs 11c, 13a, 16a, 18a, 21a, 23a, f)

Species composition. Eight species: Eusparassus dufouri Simon, 1932; E. barbarus (Lucas, 1846); E. oraniensis (Lucas, 1846); E. fritschi (Koch, 1873) stat. rev.; E. letourneuxi (Simon, 1874); E. atlanticus Simon, 1909 stat. nov.; E. syrticus Simon, 1909 and E. levantinus Urones, 2006 .

Distribution. From Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) to North-western Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) (Fig. 70b).

Remarks. Identification of females in the dufouri group is difficult; therefore a combination of characters must be used to identify the species, including eye pattern and structures of vulvas. Males are easily distinguishable by the shape of RTA and ET. Eusparassus fritschi stat. rev. is removed from synonymy with E. oraniensis . Eusparassus atlanticus stat. nov. which was subspecies of E. dufouri is elevated to species level, for comparison the nominate species ( E. dufouri) is illustrated (Figs 11a–e) [for more details see Moradmand and Jäger 2012a: figs 2–3, 23C].