Priscula Simon, 1893

Huber, Bernhard A. & Villarreal, Osvaldo, 2020, On Venezuelan pholcid spiders (Araneae, Pholcidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 718, pp. 1-317 : 227-228

Priscula Simon, 1893

Notes

Priscula is a largely Andean genus, with 13 of the now 20 described species endemic to Venezuela . However, at least Peru and Colombia are known to have numerous undescribed species present in collections (B.A. Huber, B. Rodríguez-Anillo, unpubl. data), so the actual species richness is certainly much higher.

Most Andean records are from mid to high altitudes (~ 1000–2700 m a.s.l.), and the genus has rarely been found on the lower slopes of the Andes towards the Amazon basin [e.g., P. binghamae (Chamberlin, 1916) near Yucumo, Bolivia, at 500 m a.s.l.] or in low Andean valleys (e.g., P. paeza Huber, 2000 in Depto del Valle, Colombia, at 400 m a.s.l.) ( Huber 2000). In Venezuela , most western species (in the states of Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Lara) are from mid to high altitudes, while in the east (Miranda, Monagas, Sucre), Priscula can commonly be found below 500 m a.s.l.

Of the now 13 nominal species in Venezuela , 12 are treated below. For Priscula tunebo Huber, 2000 we have no new data except for rough locality coordinates: Táchira, Pregonero, Camp. Siberia

[approximately 7.89° N, 71.72° W], “Laldea”. In 2020 we collected very close to this place (probably less than 5 km) but the only Priscula we found was P. andinensis González-Sponga, 1999 .