In March 2017 I
made a short exploratory visit to Oman. Not that I expected to find
a lot of pholcid spider diversity, but a few specimens available in
collections suggested that there are in fact at least some interesting
and undescribed species. Also, I was flying back from Sri Lanka, and
Oman was on the way. What I found in a few days surpassed by far all my expectations. Not only was I deeply impressed by the beauty and diversity of landscapes, but I found pholcid spiders almost everywhere. To my knowledge, only one species of Pholcidae had previously been recorded from the country, but I found ten species, nine of them new to science. This is the highest percentage of new species I have ever had in any trip. |
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![]() This trip tought me a lot about pholcids. In theory I had known before that pholcids occur in dry areas, but when I found them under relatively small hot rocks in the desert, far from any wadi, I was still highly surprised. At the spots shown above, I found Ninetis (left) and Artema (right). |
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These are the spiders I found at the localities shown above. Left: Artema, one of the largest pholcids worldwide; right: Ninetis (adult male!), one of the smallest pholcids. However, most diversity in the Oman seems to be in the genus Crossopriza. I found six species, all new, with a surprising range of body shapes (below). Results on Artema have been published in Huber & Carvalho 2019, those on Crossopriza in Huber 2022; those on Ninetis in Huber & Meng 2025. |
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I thank Prof. Reginald Victor (Sultan Qaboos University,
Muskat) for helping with preparations, and Ibrahim Al Zakwani for
accompanying me in the field. Financial support was provided by ZFMK.![]() |