Genus Holasteron Baehr, 2004

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• Holasteron Baehr, B.C. 2004. Revision of the new Australian genus Holasteron (Araneae: Zodariidae): taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49: 495-519 [496].

  Type species:

   Holasteron aciculare Baehr, 2004 by original designation.

Introduction

The Arachnid family Zodariidae is one of the most dominant ground-living spider families in Australia. Most species can be recognized easily by their bright yellow or orange spots on a dark brown abdomen and their white, black and orange annulated legs.

With an estimated 350-400 species, Australia has one of the richest known zodariid fauna worldwide. Only 19 species were described for the Australian continent in the first 130 years of investigation. In the last 10 years, 55 new species have been described from Baehr & Jocqué (1994, 1996, 2000), Jocqué & Baehr (1992, 2001). With funding by the Australian Biological Resources Study Participatory Program, 92 additional new species were described in the last two years (Baehr & Jocqué 2001; Baehr 2003a,b,c; Baehr & Churchill 2003).

The new genus Holasteron with 16 new species, belongs to the large Asteron-complex (Baehr and Jocqué, 1996) first described from 2 species by Jocqué (1991). Like all other described genera of the Asteron-complex, Holasteron, mentioned in Baehr & Jocqué (1996) as the Asteron howi-group, is endemic to Australia.

Most species names are derived from that of their locality, or in honor of the people who collected them, or the institution that supported this paper.

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW: Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Riverina (RIV) ; NSW, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Sydney Basin (SB) ; Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Mallee (MAL), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), Nullarbor (NUL), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Victorian Midlands (VM) ; SA: Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), King (KIN) ; SA, Vic, WA: Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD) ; WA: Esperance Plains (ESP), Jarrah Forest (JF), Murchison (MUR), Pilbara (PIL), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Warren (WAR), Yalgoo (YAL)

General References

Baehr, B. & Churchill, T.B. 2003. Revision of the endemic Australian genus Spinasteron (Araneae: Zodariidae): taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography. Invertebrate Systematics 17: 641-665

Baehr, B. & Jocqué, R. 1996. A revision of Asteron, starring male palpal morphology (Araneae, Zodariidae). Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Arachnology, Geneva, 3-8 September 1995. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 1: 15 - 28

Baehr, B. & Jocqué, R. 2000. Revisions of genera in the Asteron-complex (Araneae: Zodariidae). The new genera Cavasteron and Minasteron. Records of the Western Australian Museum 20: 1-30

Baehr, B. & Jocqué, R. 2001. Revisions of genera in the Asteron-complex (Araneae: Zodariidae): new genera Pentasteron, Phenasteron, Leptasteron and Subasteron. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 46: 359-385

Baehr, B.C. 2004. Revision of the new Australian genus Holasteron (Araneae: Zodariidae): taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49: 495-519 [495]

Jocqué, R. & Baehr, B. 1992. A revision of the Australian spider genus Storena (Araneae: Zodariidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 6: 953-1004

Jocqué, R. & Baehr, B. 2001. Revisions of genera in the Asteron-complex (Araneae: Zodariidae). Asteron Jocqué and the new genus Pseudasteron. Records of the Australian Museum 53: 21-36

History of changes