Pholcus Walckenaer, 1805

Bernhard A. Huber, Philippe Le Gall & Jacques Francois Mavoungou, 2014, Pholcid spiders from the Lower Guinean region of Central Africa: an overview, with descriptions of seven new species (Araneae, Pholcidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 81, pp. 1-46 : 10

Pholcus Walckenaer, 1805

Of the 29 operational species groups in Pholcus identified in Huber (2011b), only three occur in Central Africa: (1) the bamboutos group, with four of its nine species in Central Africa ( Fig. 27 ; a fifth species, P. kakum Huber, 2009 , is likely to occur in Lower Guinea but has not yet been documented from there); (2) the circularis group, which is largely endemic to the area considered here ( Fig. 28 ; only P. leruthi occurs further west, in Congolia and East Africa); (3) the debilis group, which is largely endemic to the area considered here ( Fig. 29 ; only P. baka ranges into Congolia). While the monophyly of the debilis group is well supported, the relationships within and among the other groups remain largely obscure ( Huber 2011b; Dimitrov et al. 2013).

Figures

Figs 27 - 28. Known distributions of the bamboutos and circularis species groups (sensu Huber 2011 b) of Pholcus Walckenaer, 1805 in Central Africa. The question mark denotes an undescribed species represented by a single male in USNM.

Figs 29 - 30. Known distributions of the debilis species group (sensu Huber 2011 b) of Pholcus Walckenaer, 1805 and of Physocyclus globosus (Taczanowski, 1874) in Central Africa.