First record of the exotic spitting spider Scytodes fusca ( Araneae , Scytodidae ) in Central Europe from Germany and Slovakia

The spitting spider Scytodes fusca Walckenaer, 1837 is recorded for the first time in Central Europe from both Germany and Slovakia. The species was found in two localities, within the Botanical Garden in Bratislava (Slovakia), specifically from a heated greenhouse with high humidity, and the “Tropical Islands”, a tropical holiday resort in Krausnick (Germany). It seems that this Pantropical species has probably been introduced here along with imported plants. A description of diagnostic characters, as well as figures, is given.

The genus Scytodes consists of 215 species and 4 subspecies distributed worldwide with the largest diversity (>100 species) in the Neotropical region.The majority of them are found in Brazil (76 species) (Rheims & Brescovit 2009, Platnick 2013).Spitting spiders are well known for their unusual hunting technique which involves spitting a sticky mass.They attack other arthropods by ejecting a mixture of silk and glue at them, immobilizing the prey long enough to allow safe envenomation (Suter & Stratton 2013).
Previously, only one species of the genus, Scytodes thoracica (Latreille, 1802), was known from Central Europe.In Europe nine species of Scytodes have been recorded, plus three species occurring only in the Canary Islands.Most of them are only known from the Mediterranean region, but four Pantropical species have been imported into Europe: Scytodes fusca Walckenaer, 1837, S. longipes Lucas, 1844, S. lugubris (Thorell, 1887) and S. venusta (Thorell, 1890) (Brignoli 1976, van Helsdingen 2012, Nentwig et al. 2013, Platnick 2013).The new spider for the Central European arachnofauna reported here, S. fusca, is known from the Americas, tropical Africa, Asia (from Indomalaya to Japan) (for more details see Brignoli 1976) and southern Europe (Cardoso 2011).
The spitting spider S. fusca is known to be synanthropic, having adapted to life inside houses in Brazil (Brescovit & Rheims 2000, Araujo et al. 2008).In Australia, it seems to be communal-territorial, living in large colonies and practicing a primitive form of maternal care (Bowden & Jackson 1988, Bowden 1991, Yap et al. 2011).

Methods
Three Botanical Gardens were sampled: two in Slovakia (Bratislava, Košice) and one in the Czech Republic (Brno).Specimens were found in only one of them, in Bratislava (Slovakia); and only in one of three tropical rooms of the greenhouse.Specimens were collected from their webs found beneath stones.In Germany all specimens were found in the tropical holiday resort "Tropical Islands" in Krausnick (near Berlin).Most of the spiders were also discovered beneath objects, as in Slovakia.
Specimens were identified using Nentwig et al. (2013).The vulva was macerated in 4 % hydroxide solution and dyed in a water solution of Amido Black.Photographs were taken using EOS Utility software

Material examined
Females with egg sacks (Fig. 1) and numerous juveniles were observed in both countries.In Germany several adult males were found, but in Slovakia only one subadult male was collected; which matured under laboratory conditions.

Diagnosis
This species could be confused with Scytodes velutina Heineken & Lowe, 1832 in Europe.Females of S. fusca have an epigynal fovea as wide as high, not narrow as in S. velutina, and the spermathecae have long, recurved stalks; very short in S. velutina.The carapace is usually much darker so the pattern is hardly visible, in comparison to S. velutina with a visible pattern.Males and juveniles can be distinguished by distinct patterns of the carapace and abdomen.Male bulbus with long, narrow terminal portion in comparison to the broad one in S. velutina (Brignoli 1976, Saaristo 1997).
Although it was described as native to French Guiana, it is commonly associated with human habitations throughout Central and South America (Valerio 1981, Brescovit & Rheims 2000).In its natural habitat, it can be found in dark, dry places, such as the underside of rocks, under loose tree bark, in the nests of small mammals (Valerio 1981, Brescovit & Rheims 2000) and also in caves (Yap et al. 2011).It is a slow-moving, nocturnal spider that prefers crevices and cavities, and is thus not easy to find.We presume it was imported into Central Europe together with plants, as was the case in Quebec, Canada, where this species was found on foliage of palm trees in interior landscaping that mimicked Neotropical rainforests (Paquin et al. 2008)."Tropical Islands" in Germany is quite new (opened in 2004) and plants were imported directly from Thailand and Costa Rica (Green pers.comm.).
The populations in both locations in Germany and Slovakia seem to be large.Our observations recorded this species mainly on the underside of stones (Figs 5, 6a) and in "Tropical Islands" also under the bark of rotten trunks infested with termites.Specimens were observed in small webs consisting of a loose tangle of silk with a funnel retreat (Fig. 5).No specimens were found on walls -which would be typical for specimens living synanthropically -but in Germany several specimens occupied the crevices of the stone sculpture (Fig. 6b).Bowden & Jackson (1988) found some Australian populations of S. fusca to be communal-territorial, building web-complexes on tree trunks.We found no other mention of the sociality of this species in the published literature.During our observations, adult and subadult specimens were found living alone and, although small juveniles were in high abundance, they lacked web-complexes.
Scytodes fusca is a tropical species; therefore its occurrence in Central Europe is most likely restricted to artificial tropical ecosystems such as heated greenhouses or water-based theme parks.The only previously published record of this species in Europe is from Portugal (Cardoso 2011).Although informa-tion about the habitat preferences of the Portuguese specimen were not published, we found that it was collected living in low garrigue vegetation near Monte Gordo in the Algarve during April, 1982 (Murphy pers. comm.).Moreover, Murphy mentioned he collected this species in many countries with a similar habitat to that in Portugal in the Mediterranean region, but never published these records.Thus a revision of the records of the similar-looking species S. velutina should be undertaken.Specimens from Slovakia were found numerously in only one of the three tropical rooms of the greenhouse.The primary reason for this could be the presence of stones around the paths, as these were missing in the other rooms.Brief observations in other Botanical Gardens in Košice and Brno suggested an absence of this species.Although both gardens had a factor in common -too few stones -the real reason could be simpler: the species S. fusca was never introduced there.
and a Canon EOS 1100D digital camera connected to a Zeiss Stemi 2000-C stereomicroscope.Digital images were montaged and edited using Photoshop CS6.The material is preserved in 70 % ethanol and deposited in the The Western Slovakian Museum in Trnava and in the private collections of Nils Reiser and Jonathan Neumann.One female was sent to Arno Grabolle (Weimar) and one to Tobias Bauer (Stuttgart).