Improphantes improbulus (Simon, 1929)

Fomichev, Alexander A., 2020, New data on spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) from the caves of Southwestern Siberia (Russia), Acta Biologica Sibirica 6, pp. 429-436 : 429

Improphantes improbulus (Simon, 1929)

Figs 1-5

Material examined.

1♀ [3].

Distribution.

Troglophilic species ( Mammola et al., 2018). This species is found from the mountainous regions of Europe and the Urals to East Kazakhstan ( Esyunin and Efimik 1999). Improphantes improbulus inhabits caves and highlands in Europe ( Thaler 1986). In the Urals, it is known to occur in the elphin birch woodland, mountain lichen tundra, limestone denudations and rocks ( Esyunin and Efimik 1999). Improphantes improbulus was reported from the Kurmanaevskaya Cave and the Tash-Astinskii Grotto in Urals ( Esyunin and Efimik 1999). This species is recorded from the Altai Mountains and from Siberia for the first time.

Figures

Figures 1 - 10. 1 - 5 Improphantes improbulus. 6 - Live Metellina merianae in Gavrilovskaya II Cave, feeding on Diptera. 7 - Letuchikh Myshei Cave. 8 - Gavrilovskaya II Cave. 9 - 10 - The map of caves where spiders were searched for. Filled circles - caves where spiders were collected; open circles - caves where no spiders were found. The numbers of caves correspond to that in the material and methods. Frame on Fig. 10 refers to Fig. 9. 1 - Habitus, dorsal. 2 - 3, 5 - Epigyne, ventral, dorsal and lateral. 4 - Abdomen with intact epigyne. Scale bars: 0.2 mm (1); 0.05 mm (2 - 3, 5); 0.1 mm (4).