Gnaphosa mongolica Simon, 1895

Grbić, Gordana, Hänggi, Ambros & Krnjajić, Slobodan, 2021, Spiders (Araneae) Of Subotica Sandland (Serbia): Additional Arguments In Environmental Protection, Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 67 (1), pp. 15-61 : 25-26

Gnaphosa mongolica Simon, 1895

Material: 30.05.2014 M1 2mm 1f; 27.06.2014 M1 1m.

Determination: WEISS & MARCU 1988, OVTSHARENKO et al. 1992, SZITA et al. 2005.

Global distribution: Palearctic (not in Western Europe).

Habitat: Under stones in the steppe

Note: The determination of this species is not entirely clear. Our material fits quite well to the figures of WEISS & MARCU (1988, sub Gnaphosa spinosa Kulczyński, 1897 ), but less to the figures in the other cited literature. The base of the median apophysis looks somewhat like the one of Gnaphosa muscorum (L. Koch, 1866) , but the median apophysis seems to be a little bit expanded ( Fig. 5 ). The tibial apophysis is smoothly bent without an inclined tip as in WEISS and MARCU (1988) and not with a median thickening as in SZITA et al. (2005) or OVTSHARENKO et al. (1992). Concerning the female, we think that the figures in WEISS and MARCU (1988) also correspond better to our material than those in OVTSHARENKO et al. (1992) and SZITA et al. (2005). Gnaphosa spinosa was synonymised with G. mongolica by OVTSHARENKO et al. (1992). At the moment, and without more material, we are not able to decide whether the small differences represent different species or even a new species.

In Hungary, the species is known since the late 19th century (sub Gnaphosa spinosa ) and inhabits sandy meadows ( SZITA et al. 2005). In the Subotica Sandland it was also found in the similar sandy habitat (habitat M1) with dominant xerophilous steppe vegetation on brown sand. To our knowledge, no photos of the genital structures are available, so we added some ( Fig. 5 ) to facilitate determination in future. In the countries where the species is present no Red List of species exists. The species may be very abundant in suitable habitats ( SZITA et al. 2005). However, with the limited geographical distribution in Europe and the narrow ecological niche (sandy steppe, a habitat type under economic pressure) we think that it should be classified as an endangered species.

Figures

Fig. 5. Gnaphosa mongolica, A–C = male left palp, A = retrolateral, B = ventral, C = prolateral, D = epigyne, ventral, E = vulva, dorsal. Scale bars: 1 mm for A–C, 0.5 mm for D–E