Talanites sumericus Zamani & Marusik, 2022

Talanites sumericus Zamani & Marusik, 2022 View in CoL ( Figs. 8 View Figure 8 A-F).

Determination. Zamani & Marusik (2022).

Material examined. 2♀♀ ( CBEUS). IRAQ: Thi Qar Province , 33 km from the city center, specimens were taken from a semi-desert area on the side of the Al-Masb Al-am River (The third river), 31.594224 °N, 45.813287 °E, 12. December. 2023. Leg. A.M. Al-Khazali GoogleMaps

Diagnosis and description. See Zamani & Marusik (2022).

Distribution. Iraq ( Fig. 9 View Figure 9 ).

Habitat and comments. This species was recently described by Zamani & Marusik (2022) from the stone desert of Najaf Province in central Iraq, based on a preserved female specimen collected in 1978. The current specimens were collected from a semi-desert region with somewhat sandy soil in Dhi Qar, southern Iraq. During the early hours of the day, these specimens were discovered concealed beneath metal debris. These anecdotal observations suggest that the species also inhabits semi-desert and dry desert areas with a stony nature, utilizing rocks, small stones, debris, and other structures as hiding places.

Discussion

According to the latest checklist, 104 spider species are known from Iraq, including 16 species and 11 genera belonging to the Gnaphosidae family ( Al-Khazali et al. 2023). Including five species new to science, one of which from Thi Qar: Berlandina mesopotamica Al-Khazali, 2020 ( Al-Khazali 2020), described using males only, and then females were described from the same province by Al-Khazali & Fomichev (2021). The current results include the discovery of a new species and the first records for two species and their genera of gnaphosid spiders, bringing the total number of Iraqi spider species to 107 and the number of known genera to 78. This number is relatively low compared to neighboring countries, such as Turkey (1,282 species) and Iran (935 species) (Danışman et al. 2022; Zamani et al. 2023). The limited number of known species in Iraq is primarily due to a lack of taxonomic studies on the order Araneae , stemming from a shortage of specialized local researchers and the turbulent political conditions that hinder the research of foreign researchers. Consequently, many areas in Iraq remain unstudied, and even those that have been studied are not completely surveyed. Therefore, any new area or material studied is likely to yield species that either represent new records or are new to science.

Acknowledgements

I want to express my gratitude to Adel Mohammed and Hussein Mohammed, my colleagues, for their help during the field trip. A huge thank you to Dr Alireza Zamani from the University of Turku in Finland for offering scientific advice. Additionally, I appreciate the valuable guidance and suggestions provided by the anonymous reviewers on the paper.

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