Mysmena Simon, 1894

Lin, Yucheng & Li, Shuqiang, 2016, Mysmenidae, a spider family newly recorded from Tibet (Arachnida, Araneae), ZooKeys 549, pp. 51-69 : 55

Taxon classification Animalia Araneae Mysmenidae

Genus Mysmena Simon, 1894

Mysmena Simon 1894: 558. Type species by original description Theridion leucoplagiataum Simon, 1879: 258 (= Mysmena leucoplagiata (Simon, 1879)).

Composition.

According to World Spider Catalog (2015), 27 described species, plus Mysmena lulanga sp. n. described here from Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet, China.

Distribution.

Spain, Southern Europe to Azerbaijan, Saint Helena, Japan, Southwest China, Taiwan, Hainan Island, Vietnam, Oceania, islands of South Pacific, Guyana, Trinidad and Canada.

Comments.

The genus Mysmena was erected by Simon in 1894 initially as a genus of Theridiiae with the type species Theridion leycoplagiatum Simon, 1879; later transferred to Symphytognathidae by Forster (1959), and then to Mysmenidae from Symphytognathidae by Forster and Platnick (1977). In recent years, research on species description reports of this genus mainly comes from China ( Miller et al. 2009; Lin and Li 2008, 2013a, 2013b), Japan ( Ono 2010), Queensland ( Lopardo and Michalik 2013) and Canada ( Lopardo et al. 2008). Lopardo and Hormiga (2015) suggested that Calodipoena , Itapua , Calomyspoena , Tamasesia , and Kekenboschiella are synonymized with Mysmena basing on the results of phylogeny and evolutionary of the family Mysmenidae . Several optimized synapomrophies shared by most of this genus were proposed, include the spermatic duct switchback distally benting at a right angle, the presence of a long ventral scape, the weakly sclerotized fertilization ducts and the vulva with a distinguishable wall ( Lopardo and Hormiga 2015).