Abstract:

Aim: This paper focuses on the advancements in taxonomic studies of extant spiders in 2025 worldwide, with detailed statistical analyses of new taxa, type localities, arachnologists conducting such research, and journals publishing these works. 

Progress: A total of 1,227 new taxa were described in 2025, including 2 new families, 88 new genera and 1,137 new species. They belong to 83 families, with type localities spanning across 98 countries. The new taxa were documented by 466 arachnologists in 371 papers, published in 79 different journals. Of these 371 papers, 50 (13.5%) were revisions of selected higher taxa (at family and genus levels), regional studies, and monographs, while 73 (19.7%) papers incorporated DNA analyses. Among the 1,137 new species, 702 (61.7%) new species were based on both male and female specimens, while 435 (38.3%) new species were only based on either male or female specimens. China yielded the highest number of new species discovered, with a total of 368, accounting for 32.4% of the global tally. With as many as 100 arachnologists naming new spider taxa, China has the highest number of active spider taxonomists globally, accounting for 21.5% of the world’s total. Among them, the most prolific arachnologist was Zhisheng Zhang, who described a total of 149 new taxa, comprising 12.1% of the worldwide total for 2025. Altogether, Zhang and 99 other Chinese colleagues described 404 new taxa, comprising 25 new genera and 379 new species from China, Thailand, and nine other countries. These new taxa described by Chinese arachnologists made up 32.9% of the 2025 global aggregate, higher than the average Chinese output during the 2016–2020 period (28.1%), but down from 33.8% in 2021, 37.0% in 2022, and 41.2% in 2023, while remaining broadly in line with 2024 (32.8%).

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