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Genus Holasteron Baehr, 2004

 

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 (map not available)

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)

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
15-Oct-2020 20-Jun-2012 MODIFIED
05-Jul-2010 MODIFIED