Cheiracanthium C.L. Koch, 1839

Zhang, Jianshuang, Yu, Hao & Li, Shuqiang, 2020, New cheiracanthiid spiders from Xishuangbanna rainforest, southwestern China (Araneae, Cheiracanthiidae), ZooKeys 940, pp. 51-77 : 51

Genus Cheiracanthium C.L. Koch, 1839

Chiracanthops Mello-Leitão 1942 ( Cheiracanthium is considered a senior synonym of Chiracanthops , Bonaldo and Brescovit 1992: 732).

Cheiracanthium C.L. Koch 1839: 9 (type species: Aranea punctoria Villers, 1789); Simon 1897: 87; Simon 1932: 895; Petrunkevitch 1933: 53; Reimoser 1937: 71; Edwards 1958: 368; Lehtinen 1967: 291; Dondale and Redner 1982: 17; Roberts 1985: 88; Sterghiu 1985: 100; Yaginuma 1986: 177; Chikuni 1989: 122; Paik 1990: 3; Wolf 1991: 233; Bonaldo and Brescovit 1992: 731; Deeleman-Reinhold 2001: 224; Lotz 2007a: 4; 2007b: 148; 2011: 23; 2014: 303; 2015: 322; Li and Lin 2016: 78.

Helebiona Benoit, 1977: 80 (type species: H. wilma Benoit, 1977); Lotz 2007a: 66.

Type species.

Aranea punctoria Villers, 1789, type locality: Europe.

Comments.

The genus Cheiracanthium currently includes 215 extant species that are widespread in the Old World and represent 61% of the total number of Cheiracanthiidae species ( WSC 2020). However, the genus remains inadequately studied because: (1) almost half of the species are known from a single sex or juveniles (37 from males, 59 from females, two from juveniles), and in some cases, the adults are apparently mismatched, or conspecific male and females have been described as separate species ( Dankittipakul and Beccaloni 2012; WSC 2020); (2) original descriptions are rather brief and lack illustrations or the illustrations are inadequate ( Zhang et al. 2018); (3) the diversity of this genus is still insufficiently known ( Zhang et al. 2018). Although several major taxonomic studies on a regional scale have been conducted, e.g., Edwards (1958) for the US, Wolf (1991) for Central Europe, Bonaldo and Brescovit (1992) for the Neotropical Region, Lotz (2007a, b, 2011, 2014, 2015) for the Afrotropical Region, Deeleman-Reinhold (2001) for Southeast Asia, the genus Cheiracanthium has been widely considered paraphyletic ( Wunderlich 2012; Marusik and Fomichev 2016). We agree with Bayer (2014) regarding the need of an extensive, large-scale review of the genus. Consequently, the present study follows the WSC (2020) and temporarily places the four new species in Cheiracanthium sensu lato.