First record of Anapis Anchicaya Platnick & Shadab, 1978 (Araneae, Anapidae) from Panama
Anapidae Simon, 1895, currently contains 58 genera and 232 species (World Spider Catalog 2024). They are dispersed worldwide, increasing diversity in tropical and southern temperate forests (Platnick etal. 2020). Anapid is a mysterious spider found in debris and vegetation, some of which are known to construct small circular orb webs in fragments and above the surface of the water (Lopardo and Codington 2017; Platnick etal. 2020).
The neotropics of this family have been extensively studied, particularly by Platnick and Shadab (1978, 1979) and Platnick and Forster (1989). In Panama, the family contains three genera. Annapis Simon, 1895. Anapisona Gertsch, 1941; Pseudoanapis Simon, 1905, and five species: Anapis Keyserlingi Gertsch, 1941; Anapisona Furtiva Gertsch, 1941; Anapisona Hamigala (Simon, 1898); Anapisona Simoni Gertsch, 1941; Pseudanapis gertschi (Forster, 1958), central and western parts of the country (World Spider Catalog 2024).
In 1895, the Anapis Simon genus is the most diverse, consisting of 29 species endemic to Central and South America (World Spider Catalog 2024). Eight new Anapis species have been described since the 1978 revision by Platnick and Shadab. One species, A. Nevada was described by Muller of Colombia (1987), and recently Dupere and Tapia (2018) described seven new species of Ecuador. Before this paper, A. keyserlingiGertsch, 1941, was the only known anapis species reported in Panama.
The purpose of this work is A. The goal was to expand the known geographical range of Anchicaya Platnick & Shadab beyond that type of region in 1978 and report the first record of this species in Panama. A list of known records of species within the genus is also provided.
The material inspected is part of the National Reference Collection of Invertebrados GB Fairchild Museo.
Material modifications were made by placing specimens in glass Petri dishes containing 70% ethanol and observing them under a stereomicroscope to determine the properties of the samples and photographing them. The keys of Platnick and Shadab (1978) were used to determine the species of Anapis.
The specimen photos were taken using a CMOS digital camera that was compatible with the Leica Stereomicroscope S9i LED2500 with the Leica Leica Application Suite X and Leica MC 170 HD. I used Photoshop CS6 software to organize the images and added details such as arrows and text.
A map of records of known species (Figure 1) was developed using R software (R Core Team 2022). This map was based on data obtained from tags of the specimens studied and information from articles by Platnick and Shadab (1978).
