Arachnologische Mitteilungen 54

34 V. Ivanov, O. Prishepchik & E. Setrakova melting in spring and its shore was also overgrown with Ty- pha , Phragmites and Carex , however at the very water line Stratiotes was present as well. Moroz & Shavanova (2007) did not provide the exact number of specimens collected and just show the percentage of D. plantarius among other spiders sampled in all sites and within the two where it was present (2.8, 4.76 and 3.9 % respectively). In total, 14 species of 6 families were collected at all 8 sites. No specimens of D. plan- tarius are available now. The next unequivocal record comes from V. Lukin (Lukin 2006a). Dolomedes plantarius was found on the bank of an ir- rigation channel, two kilometres to the north of the village of Bahušouka in 09.07.2004, 53°46'27.7"N 23°55'59.8"E.There were two females with egg sacs. One of them was taken to the laboratory and died within 5 days; no spiders emerged from the egg sac. In 2005, V. Lukin visited the same channel, but after the channel had been cleaned there were no Dolomedes at all (Lukin 2006b).We examined the specimen collected by Lukin and confirm its identity as D. plantarius ; we also provi- de a photo of its epigyne (Fig. 1 a). In the Brest region, in the south-western part of Bela- rus, Demjanczik (2006) reported the presence of D. planta- rius within the reserve “Prybužskaje Paleśsie”, but no further information was provided. We decided not to include this record on our map as it is very doubtful. No known arachno- logist from Belarus or abroad has worked at this site or has at least published anything on the matter. The record exists as part of a list with no exact site, picture or other evidence. The next site where D. plantarius was definitely present was in the near vicinity of the Pyški forest, in the Hrodna region on the bank of the river Nioman, 2006, coordinates 53°40'40.5"N 23°46'52.9"E (Ryzhaya & Kopysova 2007).We could not examine the specimen, however it might still be preserved in the personal collection of Ryzhaya at the Hrodna State University. The only record from National Park “Brasłauskija lakes” dates back to 2007. Dolomedes plantarius was mentioned in a preliminary report of the project devoted to development of the National Park (Maksimienkau 2011). The site men- tioned is the shore of lake Ryčy in the vicinity of the village of Mikałajuncy, 55°40'23.9"N 26°43'42.9"E. The spider was found and identified by Maksimienkau. No data about exact date, distribution, density, sex and age were provided. If the record is valid it is the northernmost record of D. plantarius in Belarus. However, from the 09–20 September, 2013 we vi- sited several other lakes and rivers in the territory of the Nati- onal Park and found no trace of D. plantarius . Lake Ryčy was not investigated though so it is unclear whether the spider is really present there. Another record was from the “Rare and protected species of invertebrates of National Park “Prypiacki” (Chizhevskaya 2009). The author indicated two specimens of D. plantarius that were present in the territory of the National Park. One of them was observed near the village of Simanickaja Rudnia near the river Svinavod in 01.05.2008 (Approximate coordi- nates 51°55'N 28°07'E).The second was found on 31.05.2008 in the Azeranskaje forestry, square 309, site 9 in birch forest with sedge and Sphagnum moss (51°59'14.4"N 27°58'43.8"E). The author did not provide data about the sex of the speci- mens or their age. In addition, we could not find the samples but the territory of the National Park “Prypiacki” seems to include many places with favourable conditions for D. plan- tarius . On the map issued in 2012 (available at http://www. npp.by/sertificat/map%20animals.php ) , there are four places in the park where D. plantarius is present including two sites mentioned by Chizhevskaya (2009).The data about other two records is unknown. Probably these are the first sites menti- oned in the Red Data Book of 2006. Also, the sites mentioned in Moroz & Shavanova (2007) are not present in this scheme. In one of the most protected National Parks of the Repu- blic – Biełaviežskaja forest – the records are few but reliable. In 2007 one female was collected by J. Hihiniak on river Pra- vaja Lasnaja (52°27'"N 24°05'"E) and in 2011 one female was registered on the river Višnia near the village of Dziedauka, 52°28'57.9"N 24°01'23.8"E (Bajčorau et al. 2011). The first specimen was examined and photos were taken (Fig. 1 b). Within the same collection of conference papers we found re- cords of D. plantarius from the vicinity of Hrodna and Ščučyn by Ryžaja et al. (2011). No exact sites were mentioned, but we believe that the data presented are the same as that already published in 2006. Savarin & Ostrovsky (2011) published data about sever- al records from the south-east of Belarus. Their investigation was devoted to two spider species D. plantarius and Argiope bruennichi (Scopoli, 1772) in the Homel region. It was rather fruitful and the information presented was about three sites on different rivers. The first record was in June 2007 on the left bank of river Dniepr at the place where river Biarezina flows into it (between the villages Smyčok and Berahavaja Slabada, Rečycki district, 52°32'58.8"N 30°15'04.9"E) and on the right bank of river Biarezina several hundred meters abo- ve junction of these two rivers (52°32'58.8"N 30°15'04.9"E). The second site was on the right bank of river Vuza, in the Buda-Kašalouski district (August 2009). The third one was near the bay of the river Sož in the temporary water body of a gravel road, Homel city edge (August 2010). In the last two cases it was difficult to figure out even approximate coordi- nates.The authors also provided photos of general appearance of the spider (Savarin & Ostrovsky 2011). One female was registered 22.05.2013 by Moroz and La- enko on the bank of river Słuč near the village of Pracevičy (52°56'37.4" N, 27°34'63.1"E) while conducting a survey of the invertebrate fauna of the rivers Słuč and Lakneja.The spi- der was collected with a hydrobiological net (Moroz & Laen- ko 2013). We could not examine the specimen. Finally, Ostrovsky published his records of D. plantarius from south-east of Belarus in 2014. This work included re- cords previously mentioned and one new site in south-west edge of Homel on the bank of river Sož (52°23'N 31°00'E) (Ostrovsky 2014). Recent findings of D. plantarius in Belarus Our own findings are presented in Tab. 1, some of which were already published (Ivanou 2012). The genitalia of the availa- ble specimens are presented in Fig. 1. The only questionable record is a D. plantarius female from a pond near the biolo- gical faculty of the Belarusian state University.Therefore, the figures of the habitus and genitalia are presented separately for this case (Fig. 2). Also, the specimen collected by students from the Maksim Tank State Pedagogical University near Zialonaje village, Minsk region, approximately 30 km from Minsk, was an adult female but we could not track the precise ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘