The current status of the taxonomy of the family Entypesidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae) in South Africa

Abstract

An update of the completed and future work on the family Entypesidae Bond, Opatova, Hedin, 2019 is presented.The family is composed of seven genera, all of which are endemic to Southern Africa. Some genera of this familyhave been studied by Ríos-Tamayo et al. offering new contributions in its taxonomic diversity for the region. Thegenera Hermacha and Lepthercus were reviewed and Brachytheliscus Pocock, 1902 and Hermachola Hewitt, 1915re-established. The revision of the genus Entypesa Simon, 1889 brought the separation of the Madagascar’smembers from the continental’s members resulting in the creation of the new genus Afropesa Zonstein & RíosTamayo, 2021. On the other side, the genus Ekapa Ríos-Tamayo, Lyle & Sole, 2023 was established to hold thespecies Hermacha curvipes Purcell, 1902 and Hermacha nigra Tucker, 1917 proposed as “incertae sedis” by RíosTamayo et al., 2021 both species were synonymized leaving Ekapa curvipes (Purcell, 1902) as the only species in thegenus. Future work is planned to further investigate the taxonomy and phylogeny of the family. It will includeregular field trips to collect of specimens. Aassociated data will be entered into local and international databases(locality, coordinates, collection date and habitat data). Specimens collected will be used for studies based onmorphology and for the generation of interactive keys, for the ease of identification. In addition to this molecularphylogenetic studies will be performed using a number of gene regions, these (with the morphological data) will beused to infer evolutionary relationships of taxa and their biogeographic history. Several new species of the generaAfropesa, Ekapa and Hermachola are being described and a morphological matrix is being constructed.