Carl Wilhelm Hahn was a German zoologist and author of the first German monograph on spiders. C. W. Hahn was an all-round natural scientist – not at all unusual for his time. Surprisingly, he seems to have been almost forgotten. Even the few biographical dates that have been published in secondary literature are not always correct as clarified by P. Sacher in his "attempt at a Biography".
Velvet spiders are a small group of spiders almost entirely limited to the Old World, with the exception of one species known from Brazil. In Europe, some are commonly called the ladybird spiders.
Gasteracantha is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first named by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Species of the genus are known as spiny-backed orb-weavers, spiny orb-weavers, or spiny spiders. The females of most species are brightly colored with six prominent spines on their broad, hardened, shell-like abdomens. The name Gasteracantha is derived from the Greek gaster (γαστήρ), meaning "belly, abdomen", and akantha (άκανθα), meaning "thorn, spine". Spiny-backed orb-weavers are sometimes colloquially called "crab spiders" because of their shape, but they are not closely related to the true crab spiders. Other colloquial names for certain species include thorn spider, star spider, kite spider, or jewel spider.
Eresus cinnaberinus and Eresus niger are names formerly used for a group of spiders in the genus Eresus now divided into three species, E. kollari, E. sandaliatus and E. moravicus. The three species differ in size, colour pattern, shape of prosoma and copulatory organs, and habitat, with no morphologically intermediate forms. As eastern and western E. kollari are genetically different, with the eastern form likely a hybrid between "pure" E. kollari and E. moravicus, it is possible that later revisions will partition it into additional species.
Eresus sandaliatus is a species of spider found primarily in northern and central Europe. Like other species of the genus Eresus, it is commonly called ladybird spider because of the coloration of the male.
Araneus is a genus of common orb-weaving spiders. It includes about 650 species, among which are the European garden spider and the barn spider. The genus was erected by Carl Alexander Clerck in 1757.
Missulena is a genus of mygalomorph spiders in the family Actinopodidae. It was first described by Charles Walckenaer in 1805, and is a senior synonym of Eriodon. M. tussulena is found in Chile, but the rest are indigenous to Australia. They are sometimes referred to as "mouse spiders" from the now-disproven belief that they dig deep burrows similar to those of mice. Scotophaeus blackwalli is also called a "mouse spider", but it is smaller and not closely related.
Salticus is a genus of the family Salticidae. Salticus is the type genus for the family Salticidae.
The Eresoidea or eresoids are a group of araneomorph spiders that have been treated as a superfamily. As usually circumscribed, the group contains three families: Eresidae, Hersiliidae and Oecobiidae. Studies and reviews based on morphology suggested the monophyly of the group; more recent gene-based studies have found the Eresidae and Oecobiidae to fall into different clades, placing doubt on the acceptability of the taxon. Some researchers have grouped Hersiliidae and Oecobiidae into the separate superfamily Oecobioidea, a conclusion supported in a 2017 study, which does not support Eresoidea.
Dysdera is a genus of woodlouse hunting spiders that was first described by Pierre André Latreille in 1804. They originated from Central Asia to Central Europe.
Micrathena, known as spiny orbweavers, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Micrathena contains more than a hundred species, most of them Neotropical woodland-dwelling species. The name is derived from the Greek "micro", meaning "small", and the goddess Athena.
Eresus walckenaerius is a species of ladybird spider from the eastern Mediterranean.
Eresus kollari, the ladybird spider, is a spider species in the family Eresidae. It was first described by Walckenaer in 1802, though it was misidentified. It was later correctly described by Rossi in 1846. It is one of the three species into which Eresus cinnaberinus or Eresus niger has been divided. It is thought to be endangered.
Attus is a taxon name that is now considered a junior synonym of Salticus. In the early 19th century, most jumping spiders were grouped together as a single genus under the name Attus.
Loureedia is a genus of velvet spiders that was first described by J. A. Miller in 2012. As of July 2020, it contained four species: L. annulipes, L. colleni, L. lucasi and L. phoenixi. This genus of velvet spiders that live underground are named after Lou Reed, guitarist and singer for the Velvet Underground. In 2020, researchers discovered the fourth species, L. phoenixi, in Iran.
Eresus moravicus is a spider species in the family Eresidae found in Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Albania. Being found mainly in rocky steppes. It is named after the eastern part of the Czech Republic, Moravia, which is where the type species was found. E. moravicus is one of the three species into which Eresus cinnaberinus or Eresus niger has been divided.
Seothyra, commonly known as the buckspoor spiders, buck spoor spiders or just spoor spiders, belong to a sand-dwelling, burrowing genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Eresidae. The 13 species are endemic to the arid, sandy flats and semistabilized red dunes of southern Africa. They are sexually dimorphic. The tiny males, which are seldom seen, imitate sugar ants or velvet ants in their appearance and habits, while the females hide in and hunt from their characteristic burrows. They are thermophilous, with males as well as females being most active on hot days.
Wanda Wesołowska is a Polish zoologist known for her work with jumping spiders. She has described more species of jumping spider than any contemporary writer, and is second only to Eugène Simon in the history of arachnology. Originally a student of ornithology, she developed an interest in jumping spiders while still a student at the Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in the 1970s.
Paradonea presleyi is a species of araneomorph spiders in the family Eresidae.
