The Other Side of the Coin: Taxonomic Updates and Species Key of <i>Herennia</i> (Araneae: Nephilidae)
2026
Matjaž Kuntner | Kuang-Ping Yu | Eva Turk | Klemen Čandek | Matjaž Gregorič | Gregory J. Anderson | Jonathan A. Coddington | Ren-Chung Cheng
Coin spiders of the genus <i>Herennia</i> Thorell, 1877 are species-rich nephilids distributed across South, East, and Southeast Asia and Australasia. They are notable for ladder-shaped arboricolous webs, extreme sexual size dimorphism, and complex sexual behaviors. The most recent revision recognized 11 species, only 4 of which were described from both sexes. Here, we present a taxonomic revision integrating new morphological and molecular data and recognize 14 species. We describe three new species—<i>H. eva</i> Kuntner from Sulawesi, <i>H. maj</i> Kuntner from Vietnam, and <i>H. tsoi</i> Kuntner et al. from Taiwan—and document previously unknown males of <i>H. oz</i> Kuntner, 2005 from Australia and <i>H. tone</i> Kuntner, 2005 from the Philippines. We also extend the known distribution of <i>H. papuana</i> Thorell, 1881 from New Guinea to Australia. Although several molecular species-delimitation analyses suggest <i>H. oz</i> and <i>H. etruscilla</i> Kuntner, 2005 may be conspecific, consistent and diagnostic morphological differences support their recognition as distinct species. We provide an updated identification key to all valid <i>Herennia</i> species. Additional undescribed endemics are likely to occur across the Asian mainland and the rapidly disappearing forests of Southeast Asian and Australasian islands. The genus’ biogeographic pattern, shaped by an ancestrally broad distribution spanning the Wallace Line, may reflect repeated loss and regain of ballooning, a hypothesis that warrants experimental and comparative testing.
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