Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820)

3. Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820) View in CoL

Lycosa ocreata ; Lucas 1846: 107.

Lycosoides algirica Lucas 1846: 122 (Syn.) .

Dolomedes ocreatus ; C.L. Koch 1841: 212.

Zora ocreata ; C.L. Koch 1847: 105.

Zoropsis ocreata ; Simon 1878a: 327.

Zoropsis spinimanus ; Simon 1911b: 273; Simon 1914: 32, 33; Denis 1937a: 1031.

Zoropsis spinimana View in CoL ; Abrous-Kherbouche et al. 1997: 79; Touchi et al. 2018: 282.

Citations (7): Algeria: Tell algérien ( Simon 1911b); without precise locality ( Lucas 1846; Simon 1878a; Simon 1914). Alger: Alger (C.L. Koch 1841; 1847, Lucas 1846, Simon 1899); Zéralda, Forêt d’Oued El Aggar, Zéralda Game Reserve ( Touchi et al. 2018). Mila: Djebel Daya ( Denis 1937a). Oran: Oran ( Lucas 1846). Tizi Ouzou: Massif du Djurdjura, Tala Guilef ( Abrous-Kherbouche et al. 1997).

Distribution: Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Far East), Central Asia, China, Japan. Introduced to USA ( World Spider Catalog 2024); Algeria.

Comment: in the World Spider Catalog (2024), Algeria is not yet included as part of the distribution area of the species.

V. Conclusion

This catalog aims to serve as an valuable reference for arachnology in Algeria. The present work evaluates all the existing literature, both old and recent, and provides an up-to-date list of Algerian spider species.

Compared with neighbouring North African countries, Algeria has the greatest diversity of spider species, with 893 species, compared with 545 in Morocco, 423 in Tunisia and 312 in Libya ( World Spider Catalog 2024). This may be explained by Algeria’s larger size and higher and more diverse bioclimatic regions. However, it is also likely due to the fact that Algeria has been more extensively explored than its neighbouring countries.

Despite of the high current number of species, we foresee that it will continue to grow in the future. More exhaustive sampling, especially in the South, which remains largely unexplored, and the collection of more specimens, will most likely result in new citations and the decription of new species.