Abstract:

Aim: This paper focuses on the advancements in taxonomic studies of extant spiders in 2023 worldwide, with detailed statistical analyses of new taxa, type localities, arachnologists conducting such research, and journals publishing these works.

Progress: A total of 1,311 new taxa were described in 2023, including 1 new family, 70 new genera and 1,240 new species. They belong to 71 families, with type localities spanning across 75 countries and jurisdictions. The new taxa were documented by 344 arachnologists in 315 papers, published in 63 different journals. Out of these 315 papers, 52 (16.5%) comprised revisions of selected higher taxa (at family and genus levels), regional studies, and monographs. The proportion of papers incorporating DNA analyses made up 16.8% (totaling 53 papers). Among the 1,240 new species, 740 new species were published based on both male and female specimens, accounting for 59.7% of the total, and 500 new species only published based on male or female specimens, accounting for 40.3%. China is the country with the highest number of new species discovered, a total of 412, accounting for 33.2% of the global tally. With as many as 94 arachnologists naming new spider taxa, China becomes the country with the highest number of publishing spider taxonomists, accounting for 27.3% of the world’s total. Among them, the most prolific arachnologist is Shuqiang Li, who described a total of 171 new taxa, comprising 13.0% of the worldwide total for 2023. Altogether, Li and the other 93 Chinese colleagues described a total of 540 new taxa, comprising 33 new genera and 507 new species from China, Vietnam, and the other nine countries and jurisdictions. These new taxa described by Chinese arachnologists made up 41.2% of the 2023 global aggregate, higher than the Chinese output in 2022 (37.0%), 2021 (33.8%) and during the 2016-2020 period (28.1% on average).

Key words: taxonomy, new family, new genus, new species, distribution, biodiversity