Paidiscura

Paidiscura
Paidiscura pallens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Theridiidae
Genus:	Paidiscura Archer, 1950 [1]
Type species
P. pallens (Blackwall, 1834)
Species
4, see text

Paidiscura is a genus of comb-footed spiders that was first described by Allan Frost Archer in 1950. ^[2]

Species

As of May 2020 ^[update] it contains four species, found in Asia, Africa, and Europe: ^[1]

• Paidiscura dromedaria (Simon, 1880) – Cape Verde Is., Spain, France, Italy, Greece, North Africa to Middle East
• Paidiscura orotavensis (Schmidt, 1968) – Canary Is., Madeira
• Paidiscura pallens (Blackwall, 1834) (type) – Europe, Algeria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia (Europe to South Siberia)
• Paidiscura subpallens (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) – China, Korea, Japan

Formerly included:

• P. genistae(Simon, 1873) (Transferred to Theridion )
• P. genistae(Charitonov, 1946) (Transferred to Theridion)
• P. musiva(Simon, 1873) (Transferred to Ruborridion )
• P. pinicola(Simon, 1873) (Transferred to Theridion)

In synonymy:

• P. bigibba(O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1912) = Paidiscura dromedaria(Simon, 1880)
• P. caboverdensis(Schmidt & Piepho, 1994) = Paidiscura dromedaria(Simon, 1880)
• P. caninotata(Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) = Paidiscura subpallens(Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. mirabilis(Zhu, Zhang & Xu, 1991) = Paidiscura subpallens(Bösenberg & Strand, 1906)
• P. palustre) = Paidiscura dromedaria(Simon, 1880)

References

1. "Gen. Paidiscura Archer, 1950". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. 2020. doi:10.24436/2 . Retrieved 2020-06-30.
2. Archer, A. F. (1950). "A study of theridiid and mimetid spiders with descriptions of new genera and species". Museum Paper, Alabama Museum of Natural History. 30: 1–40.

Further reading

• Knoflach, B.; Thaler, K. (2000). "Notes on Mediterranean Theridiidae (Araneae) - I". Memorie della Società Entomologica Italiana. 78: 411–442.
• Wunderlich, J. (1987). Die Spinnen der Kanarischen Inseln und Madeiras: Adaptive Radiation, Biogeographie, Revisionen und Neubeschreibungen. Triops, Langen. p. 435.
• Le Peru, B. (2011). "The spiders of Europe, a synthesis of data: Volume 1 Atypidae to Theridiidae". Mémoires de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon. 2: 1–522.
• Wunderlich, J. (2008). "On extant and fossil (Eocene) European comb-footed spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae), with notes on their subfamilies, and with descriptions of new taxa". Beiträge zur Araneologie. 5: 819–859.
• Song, D. X.; Zhu, M. S.; Chen, J. (1999). The spiders of China. Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, Shijiazhuang. p. 640.