A first synthesis of South America spider (Araneae) fauna: endemism, diversity, and taxonomy

Abstract

Describing and understanding the diversity of South American spiders is a huge chal-lenge in many aspects, starting with the sheer number of species of a megadiverse group, and the geographic span and variety of habitats, from tropical rainforests, deserts, Pampas, to Valdivian temperate forests. Where do we stand in this titanic task? Nadine Dupérré ’ s (2022a) synopsis in this special issue provides a much-needed pause to examine the previous work and extract some conclusions and projections and provides a one-stop summary that will be useful for decades. I found enlightening, for example, her analysis of invasive species in and from South America, and how it relates to dispersal abilities and endemicity. After reading her summary, one feels (or hope), that we will see a large portion of the South American spider taxonomy nearly solved in our lifetime. How would that be possible? Spider taxonomists make a vibrant scienti fi c community (see Platnick and Raven 2013; Jäger et al. 2021), and we can be deservedly proud of important achievements, such as the World Spider Catalogue (World Spider Catalog 2022), an online resource professionally curated by an inter-national committee of expert collaborators, updated on a daily basis and providing access to all the taxonomic literature. Taxonomic expertise is especially alive in South America, probably because several countries have invested for many years in positions for arachnologists. This was e ff ectively re fl ected in the 557 participants in the last South American Congresses of Arachnology in Buenos Aires, 2020, of which about 110 were professionals based locally; there were about 150 regular presentations on systematics and biogeography of arachnids, an enviable number for a regional meeting. In the second contribution to this special issue, Dupérré (2022b) provides excellent illustrations of type-bearing specimens of the South American fauna preserved in Euro-pean collections, mainly those described by Eugène Simon and Lucien Berland in the Muséum National d ’ Histoire Naturelle