Catalogue of the spiders (Araneae) of Comunidad de Madrid

Abstract

In this catalogue we seek to compile information about spiders in Comunidad de Madrid in order to evaluate the level of our knowledge in the context of the Iberian fauna as well as to promote studies leading to their conservation. For this catalogue we have compiled information coming from both published and unpublished mentions from university thesis, classified specimens from the collections of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and the results of a specific sampling carried out by M. A. Ferrández and H. Fernández de Céspedes in the San Agustín de Guadalix area. The nomenclature is based on Platnick’s world catalogue (2005) as well as on Morano’s work on the ibero-balearic fauna (2005) both available on the net. For each species we include: locality of record, UTM coordinates, original publication name and bibliographical references or museum where the material is kept. Madrid’s fauna of spiders has 261 species at present, belonging to 133 genera from 36 different families, 52% of which are cited from first time (marked with *). The general conclusion is that there is very little data about most species, those that do exist are often outdated and they lack relevant information about biological cycles, ecology, etc. There are still great many species to be recorded in the fauna of Madrid and estimates range between 350 and 400 species in total. It must be pointed that 24 out of 261 total species are endemic species from the Iberian Peninsula, some only collected very recently: Ozyptila umbraculorum (2002), Clubiona aducta, Parachtes teruelis (2005) and Amphiledorus balnearicus (in this paper).