Latrodectus cinctus Blackwall, 1865

Records: Baghdad, Basrah (Abdul-Rassoul et al. 2012 [sub Latrodectus scelio Thorell, 1870, attributed to L. renivulvatus Dahl, 1902 by Zamani & El-Hennawy 2016]; Al-Hadlag & Najim 2015 [sub Latrodectus hasselti Thorell, 1870, attributed to L. renivulvatus by Zamani & El-Hennawy 2016]; Baker & Ali 2020 [sub Latrodectus sp.]).

Distribution: Cape Verde Islands, Africa, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran.

Comment: The Iraqi record of L. scelio by Abdul-Rassoul et al. (2012) and that of L. hasselti by Al-Hadlag & Najim (2015) were attributed to L. renivulvatus by Zamani & El-Hennawy (2016). By the colouration and pattern, the reported Iraqi populations are very similar to those reported as L. cinctus from Iran (Zamani et al. 2014). Most likely, they represent the same species, a matter which should be investigated ideally using integrative methods. For now, we tentatively assign these records to L. cinctus .