identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
03C287CFFFE9FFBFFF04F91DBEF370A8.text	03C287CFFFE9FFBFFF04F91DBEF370A8.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Latrodectus Walckenaer 1805	<div><p>Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805</p><p>Type species. Latrodectus mactans (Fabricius, 1775) .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C287CFFFE9FFBFFF04F91DBEF370A8	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Zabala-Cruz, Maria Carolina;Hazzi, Nicolas A.	Zabala-Cruz, Maria Carolina, Hazzi, Nicolas A. (2026): COI-based species delimitation reveals the taxonomic status of two recently described Latrodectus species from Colombia (Araneae: Theridiidae). Zootaxa 5845 (3): 456-477, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5845.3.2, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5845.3.2
03C287CFFFE9FFA3FF04F8BDB8D677A4.text	03C287CFFFE9FFA3FF04F8BDB8D677A4.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Latrodectus corallinus Abalos 1980	<div><p>Latrodectus corallinus Abalos, 1980</p><p>(Fig. 6A–J)</p><p>Latrodectus No. 2 Ábalos &amp; Báez 1967 b: 63, 66, 67, figs 4, 10–14.</p><p>Latrodectus corallinus Ábalos 1980: 40, figs 31–37.</p><p>Latrodectus garbae Rueda et al. 2021: 257, figs 4A–I, 11A–G. syn. nov.</p><p>Latrodectus corallinus Santos et al. 2025: 141, 142, figs 6–11.</p><p>Type material. Holotype female of Latrodectus corallinus from Santiago del Estero, surroundings of the city (Santiago del Estero, Argentina), February 1969, R. Náder leg. (deposited in the Centro de Zoología Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Córdoba, Argentina) . Holotype female of Latrodectus garbae (ANDES-IN2987) from Tatacoa Desert, Villa Vieja Municipality (03°13’0.23”N, 75°8’0.72”W; 502 m, Huila Department, Colombia), 11 February 2008, F. Borrero leg. (deposited in the Colección de Entomología del Museo de Historia Natural C.J. Marinkelle (ANDES-E), Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia).</p><p>Diagnosis. Females of L. corallinus resemble those of L. diaguita Carcavallo, 1960, L. mirabilis (Holmberg, 1876), L. quartus Abalos, 1980 by sharing a dark cephalothorax, uniformly dark legs, and three coiled copulatory ducts (Ábalos 1967 b, fig 4.10; Ábalos 1980, fig. 32; Rueda et al. 2021, figs. 11A–D; Santos et al. 2025, figs. 6–7, 11). Latrodectus corallinus differs from L. quartus, L. diaguita and L. mirabilis by the distinctive arrangement of seven coral red dorsal markings composed of two anterior transverse blotches, two broad mid-abdominal red bands, and a posterior triad formed by a median arrow-shaped-streak with a pair of large lateral triangular blotches (Ábalos 1967 b, fig 5.14; Ábalos 1980, fig. 33; Rueda et al. 2021, figs. 4B–C; Santos et al. 2025, figs. 6–7). This configuration contrasts with the single posterior red spot of L. mirabilis (Ábalos 1980, fig. 2–6), the reduced darker markings of L. quartus (Ábalos 1980, fig. 40), and the pale dorsum with six brown patches typical of L. geometricus (Ábalos 1980, fig. 67; Rueda et al. 2021, figs. 2A–C). Additionally, L. corallinus differs from L. diaguita by egg sac ornamentation which includes small silk pompoms surrounding the tightly wrapped surface of the egg sac (Fig. 6H– I; Ábalos 1980, fig. 19), while L. diaguita egg sac is surrounded by a loosely draped layer of coarse unornamented silk. In Colombia, L. corallinus resembles L. curacaviensis in aposematic red and black coloration but differs by having only red coloration in the posterior dorsal region of the abdomen or in some specimens two small black dots in the median area (Fig. 6A–H; Rueda et al. 2021, figs. 3–4) while L. curacaviensis shows conspicuous black bold lines or stripes. There is not enough information to diagnose males of L. corallinus .</p><p>Variation. Abdominal coloration in Latrodectus corallinus shows notable intraspecific variability, ranging from discrete red or orange blotches bordered with white to continuous or arrow-shaped figures along the dorsum (Ábalos 1967 b, fig 5.14; Ábalos 1980, fig. 33; Rueda et al. 2021, figs. 4B–C; Santos et al. 2025, figs. 6–7). Juvenile specimens often display yellow halos surrounding dorsal markings that fade with maturity (Rueda et al. 2021, fig. 4), while in some adults, the anterior and median spots merge into a central arrow-like figure extending toward the pedicel. Genital variation is also present, with females exhibiting copulatory ducts that may show two or three coils, and males presenting corresponding variation in the embolic spiral of the palp (Abalos 1980 a; Rueda et al. 2021). This range of variability overlaps with that observed in L. diaguita, which also presents two or three turn copulatory ducts, and partially with L. antheratus (Badcock, 1932), whose genital configuration is similarly conserved (Carcavallo 1960, fig 4). However, in L. corallinus, these differences occur within populations and are not associated with geographical or ecological segregation, suggesting intraspecific polymorphism rather than diagnostic differentiation. Given this overlap, the ornamented silk-pompom egg sac (Fig. 6H, I), unique among South American congeners, remains the most stable character distinguishing L. corallinus from L. diaguita, L. antheratus, and other related species (Ábalos 1980, figs. 17–22), whose egg sacs are smooth and lack external ornamentation (Abalos 1980 a; Rueda et al. 2021).</p><p>Notes. Pairwise genetic distances between L. corallinus and the Colombian material formerly described as L. garbae are below 2% (1.2%), and phylogenetic analyses consistently recover these populations as sister to the L. corallinus + L. diaguita clade. Species delimitation analyses further demonstrate that the 2% threshold proposed by Rueda et al. (2021) is not appropriate for Latrodectus species delimitation, with our data and ASAP analyses instead supporting broader thresholds (~4%). Morphologically, the genital structures described for L. garbae cannot be distinguished from those of L. corallinus . Although Rueda et al. (2021) stated that the egg sacs of L. garbae lacked surface ornamentation, no images were provided. In contrast, personal observations by N. Hazzi in the Tatacoa Desert and additional photographs obtained through iNaturalist (Fig. 6) confirm that this taxon produces ornamented egg sacs identical to those of L. corallinus . These “silk pompom” sacs are a diagnostic feature of L. corallinus that clearly differentiate it from L. diaguita, which produces smooth, undecorated sacs.</p><p>Taken together, the molecular evidence, threshold analyses, and egg sac morphology demonstrate that L. garbae does not represent a distinct species but is conspecific with L. corallinus . The synonymy proposed here reduces artificial species inflation and contributes to the taxonomic stability of the L. curacaviensis clade. Moreover, new Brazilian records (Santos et al. 2025, figs. 2–7) expand the known distribution of L. corallinus and highlight its ecological plasticity, occupying habitats ranging from arid inter-Andean valleys to wetlands and subterranean environments. Although L. diaguita is recovered within L. corallinus, Garb et al. (2004), who sequenced those specimens, reported that sequences between the two taxa were identical. Importantly, L. corallinus specimens in their study were collected with their characteristic spiked egg sacs, whereas L. diaguita was associated with smooth sacs. Given that the mitochondrial genome is maternally inherited, a phylogeny based solely on COI gene sequences may not accurately reflect the boundaries of those two species, particularly if there are cases of incomplete lineage sorting, interspecific hybridization, or non-random mating. Therefore, denser taxon sampling and multi-locus phylogenetic analyses incorporating nuclear markers are necessary to resolve whether L. corallinus and L. diaguita represent distinct species.</p><p>Distribution. Latrodectus corallinus is distributed throughout Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. In Colombia, it inhabits the dry tropical ecosystems of the inter-Andean Magdalena Valley (Rueda et al. 2021), whereas in Argentina, it occurs in low strata beneath stones and vegetation in open grasslands (Abalos &amp; Báez, 1967 b).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C287CFFFE9FFA3FF04F8BDB8D677A4	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Zabala-Cruz, Maria Carolina;Hazzi, Nicolas A.	Zabala-Cruz, Maria Carolina, Hazzi, Nicolas A. (2026): COI-based species delimitation reveals the taxonomic status of two recently described Latrodectus species from Colombia (Araneae: Theridiidae). Zootaxa 5845 (3): 456-477, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5845.3.2, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5845.3.2
