New data on zodariid spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean

Although taxonomic research on zodariid spiders has a long history, the identification of many species has remained challenging due to insufficient documentation. In this study, we revisit 50 zodariid species from the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. For each taxon examined, we provide detailed photographic documentation of somatic and copulatory structures to facilitate future taxonomic investigations. Seven new species from three different genera are described: Lachesana gavishae Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂♀, Israel), L. lubinae Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂♀, Israel), Pax akilae Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂♀, Syria), Zodarion jakubi Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂♀, Oman), Z. levyi Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂♀, Israel and Syria), Z. milani Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂, Syria), and Z. zonsteini Shafaie & Pekár sp. nov. (♂, Cyprus and Israel). Re-examination of the Z. nicki type specimen confirms its distinction from Z. nitidum, and we provide redescriptions of both sexes of Z. nitidum. Additionally, the male of Z. nicki and the female of Z. namrun are described here for the first time. We revalidate Z. tunetiacum and designate a neotype based on newly examined material. Two new synonymies are also proposed: Acanthinozodium crateriferum syn. nov. is synonymized with A. tibesti, and Z. kunti syn. nov. is synonymized with A. odem. Furthermore, we report ten new country records: A. odem (Syria), A. tibesti (Egypt), Z. abantense (Greece), Z. granulatum (Syria), Z. karpathos (Turkey), Z. morosum (Syria), Z. reticulatum (Turkey), Z. rhodiense (Cyprus, Syria), Z. thoni (Iran, Greece), and Z. tunetiacum (Egypt).