Abstract:

Aim: This paper focuses on the advancements in taxonomic studies of spiders in 2024 worldwide, with detailed statistical analyses of new taxa, type localities, arachnologists conducting such research, and journals publishing these works.

Results: A total of 1,048 new taxa were described in 2024, including 54 new genera and 994 new species. They belong to 68 families, with type localities spanning across 83 countries or regions. The new taxa were documented by 394 arachnologists in 329 papers, published separately in 65 different journals. Out of these 329 papers, 57 (17.3%) comprised revisions of selected higher taxa (at family and genus levels), regional studies, and monographs. The proportion of papers incorporating DNA analyses made up 14.9% (totaling 49 papers). Among the 994 new species, 643 new species were published based on both male and female specimens, accounting for 64.7% of the total, and 351 new species only published based on male or female specimens, accounting for 35.3%. China is the country with the highest number of new species discovered, a total of 309, accounting for 31.1% of the global tally. With as many as 92 arachnologists naming new spider taxa, China becomes the country with the highest number of publishing spider taxonomists, accounting for 23.4% of the world’s total. Among them, the most prolific arachnologist is Shuqiang Li, who described a total of 144 new taxa, comprising 13.7% of the worldwide total for 2024. Altogether, Li and the other 91 Chinese colleagues described a total of 344 new taxa, comprising 18 new genera and 326 new species from China, Vietnam, and the other six countries or regions. These new taxa described by Chinese arachnologists made up 32.8% of the 2024 global aggregate, higher than the Chinese output during the 2016-2020 period (28.1% on average), but lower than in 2021 (33.8%), 2022 (37.0%) and 2023 (41.2%).

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