Arachnologische Mitteilungen 55

Prinerigone vagans new to Poland 77 Cambridge (1872) was based. Denis (1948), not satisfied with the quality of the drawings in the first description, referred to the drawings of E. spinosa in O. Pickard-Cambridge (1910), which on the other hand were based on English specimens and correspond well to his French males. Our male from Po- land possesses a long and slender patella and tibia and the ty- pical patellar apophysis described by O. Pickard-Cambridge for E. spinosa (O. Pickard-Cambridge 1872, 1910). However, the length of the palpal segments seems to vary considerably within populations in Europe, as Knülle (1954) and Locket & Millidge (1953) pointed out. This hypothesis is also sup- ported by assemblages from Hautes-Pyrénées (France) by Denis, which contained specimens of both variants (Denis 1950). Knülle (1954) mentioned two specimens from Nort- hern Germany which fit the original drawings by Audouin (1826), without having visible differences in the more difficile structures of the bulbus compared to numerous specimens of the other variant. Locket & Millidge (1953) explained the variations in the segment lengths with the presence of allo- metric growth in males of P. vagans . Bosmans (2007) illus- trated a male from the Maghreb, which seems to present a more intermediate form between the two variations of Denis (1948). However, the accompanying illustration of a male P. vagans palp (sub. P. vagans vagans ) in Jocqué (1981) based on a specimen from the central Sahara is partially similar to the spinosa -variety, possessing a long and slender patella and tibia, but also a shorter and more robust patellar apophysis, better fitting the drawing by Audouin (1826) and hardly explained by allometric growth (Locket & Millidge 1953). Already Joc- qué (1981) pointed out that there are considerable morpho- logical variations between isolated populations in the Sahara region, which can be considered as relicts of a once vast distri- bution in a more humid past. On the other hand,Tanasevitch (2009) demonstrated that even within single populations in Iran very noticeable variations of the teeth on the palpal tibia occur. Future investigations should therefore target the gene- tic diversity of P. vagans throughout its distribution and cla- rify the situation and the relationships especially between the North African, Near/Middle East and European populations including Prinerigone pigra (Blackwall, 1862) from Madeira, which seems to be only separable by the length of the patella and tibia of the male palp and possesses no visible differences in the structure of the bulbus (Wunderlich 1995). If some populations will be revealed as unrecognized species, their names must be chosen with care, since the younger synonym Erigone spinosa O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872 refers to spe- cimens from Europe and the Near East. However, it seems possible that E. vagans is a single polymorphic species and includes P. vagans arabica and P. pigra , as already pointed out by Tanasevitch (2009). Acknowledgements We are grateful to Konrad Wiśniewski for information on the Polish spider fauna and a constructive review. We would also like to thank Karl-Hinrich Kielhorn and Michael Schäfer for help with literature, Florian Raub for proofreading an earlier draft of the manuscript, the members of spinnen-forum.de for fruitful arachnological discussions, Marzena Stańska for reviewing the manuscript and Theo Blick for valuable comments. JG would like to thank fam. Kaluza und fam. Urbaczka for their support and the pleasant accommodation during the collecting activities in Poland. References Arachnologische Gesellschaft 2017 Atlas der Spinnentiere Europas. – Internet: http://atlas.arages.de (15.ix.2017) Armbruster J 2003 Untersuchungen zur Spinnenfauna (Araneae) an Mittel-Gebirgsbächen und zur Besiedlung neu entstandener Uferstrukturen. – Arachnologische Mitteilungen 25: 17-37 – doi: 10.5431/aramit2502 Audouin V 1826 Explication sommaire des planches d‘arachnides de l‘Égypte et de la Syrie. In: “Description de l‘Égypte, ou recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l‘expédition de l‘armée franÇaise,publié par les ordres de sa Majesté l’Empereur Napoléon le Grand.”– Histoire Naturelle 1(4): 99-186 Fig. 5: Records of Prinerigone vagans (Audouin, 1826) in Poland (red), Germany (black) and the Czech Republic (blue)