Forty New Faunistic Records of Spiders (Araneae: Araneomorphae) for the Republic of Kosovo

Abstract

Simple Summary The Republic of Kosovo is a landlocked country in the Balkan Peninsula, characterised by large mountainous borders and divided by three distinct ecoregions. As with many aspects of its invertebrate biology, Kosovo is a hitherto poorly-studied country for arachnids, especially spiders (Araneae). Consequently, several years of fieldwork by the authors has aimed to sample spiders from as many localities, habitats and microhabitat types as possible. Voucher specimens were taken for all morphospecies and compared against the published literature and online resources such as the World Spider Catalog and Araneae: Spiders of Europe. Consequently, this work reports 40 species of spider newly recorded from within the borders of the Republic of Kosovo, significantly expanding knowledge of the faunistic diversity and distribution of spiders within the country. The habitus and genitalia of all species are illustrated to justify the identifications made and to provide reference images for other workers in the Balkans to aid in their identification of faunistically widespread species.