Range expansion of the genus Crossopriza (Araneae: Pholcidae): a new record from Iran

So far, 114 spider families have been recognized in the world. The family Pholcidae is one of the diverse spider families with 86 genera and 1136 described species. This family consist of small- to medium- sized hoplogyne spider, having six or eight eyes, in conspicuously coloured web weaving spiders. Due to having long legs and simulative to the opiliones, the pholcid family is known as daddy long legs. They occupy a wide range of habitat, ranging from desert to rainforest, and from house to cave. Among different types of spider families, Daddy long leg spiders are one of the least known families. Crossopriza Simon, 1893 is a genus belong to the family that consist of seven species in the world, most of them are recorded from Africa and one is cosmopolitan (Crosso priza lyoni). So far, many molecular and morphological studies have been conducted on spiders, but in Iran they have not been enough studied. We collected specimens (consist of male and female) from houses and caves in Khorasan Razavi and Fars Provinces and kept them in 96% ethanol and the morphological characters were pho-tographed using Canon and identified them with contribution Dr B. Huber (Museum Koenig- Bonn). Finally the result of this study that we recorded the genus Crossopriza for first time form Iran

کلیدواژه ها:

New record ، Pholcidae ، Crossopriza ، Iran