Dwarf hunting spiders or Oonopidae (Arachnida, Araneae) of the Seychelles

The main pan of the material treated in this paper comes from the Granitic Seychelles but samples from the four following atolls: Aldabra, Assumption Atoll, Poivre Atoll, and Farquar Atoll have also been included. Previously 24 species were reported from Seychelles (Benoit 1979, Saaristo 1999). In this paper 9 species are recorded as new to Seychelles and all of them are also new to science: Cousinea keelei gen. n., sp. n., Silhouettella assumptia sp. n., Farqua quadrimaculata gen. n., sp. n., Lionneta gerlachi sp. n., Opopaea probosciella sp. n., Ischnothyreus serpentinum sp. n., Matyotia tetraspinosus gen. n., sp. n., 'Orchestina' maureen sp. n., and 'Orchestina' justini sp. n,. In addition 7 new genera are created: Cousinea gen. n. (type species: Cousinea keeleyi sp. n.), Farqua gen. n. (type species: Farqua quadrimaculata sp. n.), Prida gen. n. (type species: Gamasomorpha sechellensis Benoit, 1979), Patri gen. n. (type species: Gamasomorpha david Benoit, 1979), Lisna gen. n. (type species: Gamasomorpha trichinalis Benoit, 1979), Ischnothyrella gen. n. (type species: Ischnothyreus jivani Benoit, 1979), and Matyotia gen. n. (type species: Matyotia tetraspinosus sp. n.). Also the following synonyms have been established: Opopaea lena Suman, 1965 = Gamasomorpha ladiguei Benoit, 1979 syn. n. = Opopaea mortenseni Brignoli, 1980 syn. n.; Ischnothyreus peltifer (Simon 1891) = Ischnothyreus omosus Suman, 1965 syn. n. = Ischnothyreus formusus Brignoli, 1974 syn. n. Further four new combinations have been presented: Gamasomorpha loricatula (Roewer, 1942) = Silhouettella loricatula (Roewer, 1942) comb. n., Silhouettella mahei (Benoit, 19479 = Pelicinus mahei (Benoit, 1979) comb. n., Ischnothyreus orophilus Benoit, 1979 = Lionneta orophila (Benoit, 1979) comb. n., and Oonops savyi Benoit, 1979 = Lionneta savyi (Benoit, 1979) comb. n. Three of the new species for Seychelles have been found only on the atolls. The total number of the Oonopidae of the Granitic Seychelles is now 30 species. The importance of this family on the Granitic Seychelles is reflected by the fact that some 16% of all known spiders living there are oonopids.