Priscula Simon, 1893

Priscula Simon, 1893 View in CoL View at ENA

Notes

Priscula is a largely Andean genus, with 13 of the now 20 described species endemic to Venezuela . However, at least Peru and Colombia are known to have numerous undescribed species present in collections (B.A. Huber, B. Rodríguez-Anillo, unpubl. data), so the actual species richness is certainly much higher.

Most Andean records are from mid to high altitudes (~ 1000–2700 m a.s.l.), and the genus has rarely been found on the lower slopes of the Andes towards the Amazon basin [e.g., P. binghamae (Chamberlin, 1916) near Yucumo, Bolivia, at 500 m a.s.l.] or in low Andean valleys (e.g., P. paeza Huber, 2000 in Depto del Valle, Colombia, at 400 m a.s.l.) ( Huber 2000). In Venezuela , most western species (in the states of Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo, Lara) are from mid to high altitudes, while in the east ( Miranda, Monagas, Sucre), Priscula can commonly be found below 500 m a.s.l.

Of the now 13 nominal species in Venezuela , 12 are treated below. For Priscula tunebo Huber, 2000 we have no new data except for rough locality coordinates: Táchira, Pregonero, Camp. Siberia

[approximately 7.89° N, 71.72° W], “Laldea”. In 2020 we collected very close to this place (probably less than 5 km) but the only Priscula we found was P. andinensis González-Sponga, 1999 .