# Spiders in caves: the CAWEB project

Stefano Mammola, Fulvio Gasparo, Marjan Komenov, Vlastimil Růžička, Sylvain Déjean, Samuel Danflous, Hervé Brustel, Robert S. Vargovitsh, Robert Rozwalka, Oana Moldovan, et al.

► To cite this version:

Stefano Mammola, Fulvio Gasparo, Marjan Komenov, Vlastimil Růžička, Sylvain Déjean, et al. Spiders in caves: the CAWEB project. 30. European Congress of Arachnology, Aug 2017, Nottingham, United Kingdom., 163 p., 2017, Abstract 30th European Congress of Arachnology. hal-01606525

HAL Id: hal-01606525

https://hal.science/hal-01606525

Submitted on 2 Jun 2020

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30th
European Congress
of Arachnology

August 20th-25th, 2017
University of Nottingham – UK
with thanks to:

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European
Society of
Arachnology

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Fisher
Scientific
**Organising Committee**

Sara Goodacre, University of Nottingham, UK

Dmitri Logunov, Manchester Museum, UK

Geoff Oxford, University of York, UK

Tony Russell-Smith, British Arachnological Society, UK

Yuri Marusik, Russian Academy of Science, Russia

**Helpers**

Leah Ashley, Tom Coekin, Ella Deutsch, Rowan Earlam, Alastair Gibbons, David Harvey, Antje Hundertmark, Liaque Latif, Michelle Strickland, Emma Vincent, Sarah Goertz.

Congress logo designed by Michelle Strickland.

**We thank all sponsors and collaborators for their support**

British Arachnological Society, European Society of Arachnology, Fisher Scientific, The Genetics Society, Macmillan Publishing, PeerJ, Visit Nottinghamshire Events Team

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Content

<table><tr><td>General Information</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Programme Schedule</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Poster Presentations</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>Abstracts</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>List of Participants</td><td>140</td></tr><tr><td>Notes</td><td>154</td></tr></table>
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## Foreword

We are delighted to welcome you to the University of Nottingham for the 30th European Congress of Arachnology. We hope that whilst you are here, you will enjoy exploring some of the parks and gardens in the University's landscaped settings, which feature long-established woodland as well as contemporary areas such as the 'Millennium Garden'. There will be a guided tour in the evening of Tuesday 22nd August to show you different parts of the campus that you might enjoy exploring during the time that you are here.

## Registration

Registration will be from 8.15am in room A13 in the Pope Building (see map below). We will have information here about the congress itself as well as the city of Nottingham in general. Someone should be at this registration point throughout the week to answer your questions. Please do come and find us if you have any queries. We want to make your stay in Nottingham as enjoyable as possible.

## Plenary Talks

These will take place in the Pope Building in Lecture Hall C14 at the start of each conference day.

## Information for Speakers

Lectures will take place in the Pope Building, in Lecture Halls C14 and C16. Each speaker will have 20 minutes (15 minutes talk + 5 minutes for questions). Please prepare talks in Powerpoint or PDF format and load onto the computers in lecture theatres using a USB pen before the session begins. Mac users please check that your presentation is compatible with Windows.

## Posters

Please make posters A0 portrait size. Posters will be exhibited in rooms A13 and A14 in the Pope Building. Please bring them here on the morning of the first day of the congress (Monday 21st). There will be a map in these rooms showing where you should hang your poster. Please take posters down during the morning session of Friday 25th August.
## Arrival Information and Transport

Parking is in the main visitor's car park (post-code for sat nav is NG7 2QL). There are also tram and bus services to/from the city centre. Please note that the correct tram stop is 'The University of Nottingham' and not 'Nottingham Trent University', which is another university in the city centre. Tram ticket machines take coins or cards (single journeys ~£2). Bus tickets cost about the same and are bought on board. Some buses do not give change. For those staying at Hugh Stewart Hall, please make your way to the hall's reception (accessible from the top left-hand corner of the visitors' carpark.)

https://saragoodacre.wixsite.com/eca-2017/getting-from-the-city-to-campus

## Evening Entertainments

The evening BBQ on the night of the 21st August and the conference dinner on the evening of the 24th August will both take place in Hugh Stewart Hall of Residence. There will be an excursion into Nottingham city centre on Tuesday 22nd August to show you some of Nottingham's finest pubs. The *Russian Party*, a highlight of the congress, will be held on Wednesday 23rd in the ESCL building next to the lecture theatre venue. Finally, a 'Ceilidh' will be held in A13/A14 of the Pope building after the conference dinner on the evening of the 24th.

## The Venue

See map on page 3.

## Talks, Posters and Lunches

Talks will take place in the Pope Building in lecture theatres C14 and C16. Posters displays and lunches will be in the same building in rooms A13 and A14.

## Excursions

Excursion day is Wednesday 23rd August. Further information about the different excursions will be provided at registration.

## Post-congress Event

There will be an excursion to visit the local Attenborough Nature Reserve on the morning of Saturday 26th. Details will be provided at registration.
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# Programme Schedule

## Monday, August 21

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Congress opening</th><th>Lecture Hall C14</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td></td><td>Chair: Sara GOODACRE &amp; Dmitri LOGUNOV</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>9:00-9:20</td><td>Mayor's welcoming speech</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>9:20-10:00</td><td><i>Torbjorn Kronestedt</i> and <i>Christian Komposch</i></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Slide show: old and modern days of European arachnology</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>10:00-11:00</td><td><i>Yael LUBIN</i> (Israel) – Plenary lecture</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The other spider societies</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>11:00-11:40</td><td>Coffee break</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Session – Behavioural ecology</th><th>Lecture Hall C14</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td></td><td>Chair: Yael LUBIN</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>11:40-12:00</td><td><i>Marlis DUMKE</i> (Australia)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>The maintenance of cooperation and equal sex ratios in a socially foraging spider</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12:00-12:20</td><td><i>Onno PREIK</i> (Germany)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Decrypting female choice: investigation of possible post-copulatory cryptic female choice mechanisms in <i>Argiope bruennichi</i> (Scopoli, 1772)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12:20-12:40</td><td><i>André WALTER</i> (Denmark)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Kin-mediated differences in group feeding performance in sub-social <i>Stegodyphus africanus</i> spiders (Araneae, Eresidae)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12:40-13:00</td><td><i>Petr DOLEJŠ</i> (Czech Republic)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Reproduction and ontogeny of <i>Zorocrates guerrerensis</i> Gertsch &amp; Davis, 1940 (Araneae: Zoropsidae)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>13:00-14:00</td><td>Lunch</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Parallel session 01 – Taxonomy and phylogeny</th><th>Lecture Hall C14</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td></td><td>Chair: Yuri MARUSIK</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>14:00-14:20</td><td><i>Matjaž KUNTNER</i> (Slovenia)</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Nephilid spider phylogenomics: complex evolution of sexual size dimorphism</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>14:20-14:40</td><td><strong>Christian Louis Bonatto PAESE (UK)</strong><br>Characterisation of the role of HES (hairy/enhancer-of-split) gene family members during embryogenesis of the spider<br><em>Parasteatoda tepidariorum</em></td></tr><tr><td>14:40-15:00</td><td><strong>Francisco Emmanuel Méndez CASTRO (Germany)</strong><br>Spatial patterns of diversity for the conservation of epiphyte-dwelling spiders: an island biogeography approach concerning isolation processes</td></tr><tr><td>15:00-15:20</td><td><strong>Stefano MAMMOLA (Italy)</strong><br>Aesthetic impact of <em>Brigittea civica</em> webs on historical buildings in the down-town district of Turin (NW Italy)</td></tr></table>

Parallel session 02 – Databases and engagement

Lecture Hall C16

Chair: Geoff OXFORD

**14:00-14:20**
**Christian KROPF** and **Wolfgang NENTWIG** (Switzerland)
Ideas concerning the future development of WSC, Araneae and VINST

**14:20-14:40**
**Vladimir OVTCHARENKO** (USA)
A comprehensive Database of Ground Spiders (Gnaphosidae) from Asia and Australia

**14:40-15:00**
**Arthur E. DECAE** (The Netherlands)
The second best builders on the planet

**15:00-15:20**
**Sarah PIERCE** (UK)
Open Air Laboratories: How to engage one million participants in citizen science?

**15:20-16:00**
Coffee break

Parallel session 01 – Taxonomy

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Peter KOOMEN

**16:00-16:20**
**Matyas HIŘMAN** (Czech Republic)
Same but different! Karyotype variability of the suborder Cyphophthalmi in the Balkan Peninsula (Arachnida: Opiliones)

**16:20-16:40**
**Michael SEITER** (Austria)
Different approaches to whip spider taxonomy (Arachnida: Amblypygi)

**16:40-17:00**
**Shou-Wang LIN** (Germany)
Knocking trees, spiders fall: fourteen new species of *Shaanxinus*
Tanasevitch, 2006 (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae) from
Taiwan and Vietnam

**17:00–17:20** **Stanislav KORENKO** (Czech Republic)
Resurrection of the spider parasitoid genus *Millironia* Baltazar
1964 (Ichneumonidae, Ephialtini)

## Parallel session 02 – Predatory effect of spiders

Lecture Hall C16

Chair: Robert BOSMANS

**16:00–16:30** **Ferenc SAMU** (Hungary)
The significance of non-consumptive effect of spiders in
biological control

**16:30–16:50** **Radek MICHALKO** (Czech Republic)
Neem application alters the relationship between predatory
activity and behavioural predictability along a prey density
gradient in the spider *Oxyopes lineatipes*

**16:50–17:10** **Roman BUCHER** (Germany)
Effects of resource pulses on spider top-down control –
numerical response and prey choice

**17:10–17:30** **Hafiz Muhammad TAHIR** (Pakistan)
Non-consumptive effect of spiders on the foraging behaviour of
herbivorous insects

Tuesday, August 22

## Plenary session – Silk

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Matjaz KUNTNER

**9:00–10:00** **Fritz VOLLRATH** (UK) – Plenary lecture
Spiders webs and their silks

**10:00–10:20** **Erica MORLEY** (UK)
Ballooning spiders: sensory mechanisms and electric flight?

**10:20–10:40** **Anna-Christin JOEL** (Germany)
Nanofibrous adhesion of the capture threads of cribellate
spiders

**10:40–11:00** **Michelle STRICKLAND** (UK)
Diversity of silks and spinning apparatus of the water
spider *Argyroneta aquatica* (Araneae, Cybaeidae)

**11:00–11:40** Coffee break
Parallel session 01 – Taxonomy

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Dmitri LOGUNOV

11:40–12:00 **Yuri M. MARUSIK** (Russia)

Typified and non-typified names in spider systematics

12:00–12:20 **Łukasz TRĘBICKI** (Poland)

Phylogenetic analysis of the Australasian genus *Cytaea* (Araneae: Salticidae) based on morphology and molecular markers; preliminary results

12:20–12:40 **Nilani KANESHARATNAM** (Sri Lanka)

Molecular and morphological data reveals a cryptic radiation of shiny South Asian jumping spiders

12:40–13:00 **Ilesha Sandunika ILEPERUMA ARACHCHI** (Sri Lanka)

Unravelling the phylogeny of two closely related crab spider genera in Sri Lanka (Araneae: Thomisidae)

Parallel session 02 – Diversity and faunistics

Lecture Hall C16

Chair: Efrat GAVRISH-REGEV

11:40–12:00 **Robert BOSMANS** (Belgium)

Assessing biodiversity in the Mediterranean region: the case of the genus *Haplodrassus* Chamberlin, 1922 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae)

12:00–12:20 **Jesús HERNÁNDEZ-CORRAL** (Spain)

Diversity and ecology of Araneae in hollows of *Quercus pyrenaica* in the western Iberian peninsula

12:20–12:40 **Peter KOOMEN** (The Netherlands)

High altitude jumping spiders (Salticidae) of Kinabalu Mountain, Borneo, Malaysia-Sabah

12:40–13:00 **Muhammad AHSAN** (Pakistan)

Diversity and ecology of the scorpion fauna of Punjab, Pakistan

13:00–14:00 **Lunch**

Parallel session 01 – Diversity and faunistics

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Milan ŘEZÁČ

14:00–14:20 **Marco ISAIA** (Italy)

Spiders in caves: the CAWEB project

14:20–14:40 **Stefan FOORD** (South Africa)

Landuse change in savannas disproportionally reduces functional
diversity of invertebrate predators at the highest trophic levels: spiders as an example

**14:40–15:00** **Yuri MARUSIK** (Russia)
A reconstruction of the mammoth "steppes" in Northeastern Siberia and Beringian exchanges

**15:00–15:20** **Astri LEROY** (South Africa)
Spiders (Araneae) at Brenturst Garden, a city garden in Johannesburg, South Africa

## Parallel session 02 – Taxonomy and phylogeny

Lecture Hall C16

**Chair: Cristian KROPF**

**14:00–14:20** **Cor VINK** (New Zealand)
The spider tree of life. What does it mean for the New Zealand fauna?

**14:20–14:40** **Richard GALLON** (UK)
A revision of the Southern African spider genus *Brachionopus* Pocock, 1897 with notes on *Harpactirella* Purcell, 1902 (Theraphosidae; Harpactirinae)

**14:40–15:00** **Sasanka RANASINGHE** (Sri Lanka)
Molecular phylogeny of the spider family Oonopidae (Araneae, goblin spiders)

**15:00–15:20** **Nusrat MAJEED** (Pakistan)
DNA barcoding of jumping spiders from Pakistan

**15:20–16:00** Coffee break

## Session – Biogeography

Lecture Hall C14

**Chair: Marco ISAIA**

**16:00–16:20** **Jagoba MALUMBRES-OLARTE** (Catalonia)
The same but different: how climate, geography and habitat shape mega-diverse spider communities

**16:20–16:40** **Yuri MARUSIK** (Russia)
Palaearctic and Nearctic vs. Holarctic: how does spider distribution correlate with zoogeographic regions?

**16:40–17:00** **Igor ARMIACH** (Israel)
Evippinae (Araneae, Lycosidae) in Israel – taxonomy and biogeography in a desert crossroads

**17:00–17:20** **Christian KOMPOSCH** (Austria)
“The Times They Are A Changing” – An Alpine transect in the
light of faunal change

**17:20–19:00** **Poster Session**

Wednesday, August 23

Excursion day

Thursday, August 24

Plenary session – Taxonomy and evolution

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Sara GOODACRE

**9:00–10:00** **Alistair P. McGREGOR** (UK) – Plenary lecture

Arachnid evolution and development: insights from the spider
*Parasteatoda tepidariorum* (C. L. Koch, 1841)

**10:00–10:20** **Miquel ARNEDO** (Catalonia)

A DNA barcode analysis of a species radiation: using genetic data to inform species delimitation in the woodlouse-hunter *Dysdera* spiders of the Canary Islands

**10:20–10:40** **Geoff OXFORD** (UK)

Molecules vs. morphology - is *Eratigena* (*Tegenaria*)*
*atrica* (Agelenidae) one species or three?

**10:40–11:00** **Christoph MUSTER** (Germany)

*Micaria pulicaria* – a complex of cryptic species?

**11:00–11:40** **Coffee break**

Session – Taxonomy

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Theo BLICK

**11:40–12:00** **Adrià Bellvert BANTÍ** (Catalonia)

A happy family: adaptive radiation of the spider genus *Theridion* in the Hawaiian Islands

**12:00–12:20** **Abida BUTT** (Pakistan):

Effect of habitat variations and insecticide application on density and diversity of spiders in a rice agroecosystem

**12:20–12:40** **Muhammad MUKHTAR** (Pakistan)

Insecticide resistance in orb-web spiders
**12:40–13:00** **Yuri MARUSIK** (Russia)

Amazing characters found in the Afrotropical Chediminae
(Araneae: Palpimanidae)

**13:00–13:20** **Conference photo**

**13:20–14:00** **Lunch**

## Session – Bionomics and mimicry

Lecture Hall C14

**Chair:** Petr DOLEJŠ

**14:00–14:20** **Rebecca WILSON** (USA)

Investigating the influence of biogenic amines on the circadian
rhythmicity of anti-predator behaviour in orb-weaving spiders

**14:20–14:40** **Ondřej MICHÁLEK** (Czech Republic)

Silk or venom? Alternative capture traits employed by
myrmecophagous specialist and generalist spider

**14:40–15:00** **Stano PEKÁR** (Czech Republic)

The golden mimicry complex uses a spectrum of defences to
deter a community of predators

**15:00–15:20** **Jan RAŠKA** (Czech Republic)

Do ladybird spiders really mimic ladybirds?

**15:20–16:00** **Coffee break**

## Session – Cytology, infections

Lecture Hall C14

**Chair:** Stano PEKÁR

**16:00–16:20** **Philip STEINHOFF** (Germany)

Living in caves: a comparative morphological analysis of the
central nervous system in *Pinelema* spiders

**16:20–16:40** **Alastair GIBBONS** (UK)

They've breached the walls: intra and extra cellular microbes of
spiders

**16:40–17:00** **Antje HUNDERTMARK** (UK)

*Wolbachia* infections in *Nephila senegalensis*: Where have all
the good men gone?

**17:00–17:20** **Jana PLÍŠKOVÁ** (Czech Republic)

Utilization of molecular cytogenetic markers in the study of
karyotype dynamics in the family Buthidae (Arachnida,
Scorpiones)

**17:20–19:00** **Poster Session**
Friday, August 25

Plenary session – Behavioural ecology

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Seppo KOPONEN

**9:00–10:00**
*Cristina TUNI* (Germany) – Plenary lecture
A journey inside the nuptial gift of a spider

**10:00–10:20**
*J. Andrew ROBERTS* (USA)
Running for cover: increasingly risk prone behaviour of male wolf spiders

**10:20–10:40**
*Lenka SENTENSKÁ* (Czech Republic)
Sensory organ found in the male pedipalp of an entelegyne spider

**10:40–11:00**
*Victoria SMITH* (New Zealand)
How to trap a master trapper: the various methods of catching Idiopidae

**11:00–11:40**
Coffee break

Session – Recording schemes

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Anthony RUSSELL-SMITH

**11:40–12:20**
*Peter HARVEY* (UK)
Spider Recording Scheme in Britain

**12:20–12:40**
*Maria CHATZAKI* (Greece)
The project SPIDOnetGR 2014–2015, Greece: revisited in 2017

**12:40–13:00**
*Samuel DANFLOUS* (France)
Mapping the spiders and harvestmen of the Midi-Pyrénées (France)

**13:00–13:20**
*Theo BLICK* (Germany)
The new German Red Data Lists of Arachnids and the German online maps of the Arachnologische Gesellschaft – with Examples of Spiders from the Strict Forest Reserves in Hesse

**13:20–14:20**
Lunch

Session – Taxonomy and diversity

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Ferenc SAMU

**14:20–14:40**
*Yuri MARUSIK* (Russia)
A discovery of hidden species related to *Pardosa pontica*
(Thorell, 1875) in northern Iran
14:40–15:00

**Ejgil GRAVESEN** (Denmark)

Greenland glacier retreat: exploring arctic arthropod food webs
in a glacier foreland area near Nuuk in West Greenland

15:00–15:20

**Konrad WIŚNIEWSKI** (Poland)

Prescribed burning as a method of protecting heathlands in
Poland – a spider perspective

15:20–15:40

**Ibrahim SALMAN** (Israel)

New insights in explaining spider diversity in pomegranate
orchards

15:40–16:00

*Coffee break*

Session – Morphology and physiology

Lecture Hall C14

Chair: Christian KOMPOSCH

16:00–16:20

**Boris ZAKHAROV** (USA)

Comparative morphology of venom glands in ground spiders
(Araneae, Gnaphosidae)

16:20–16:40

**Eva LIZNAROVA** (Czech Republic)

Is venom of prey-specialised spiders more effective in paralysis
of focal prey?

16:40–17:00

**Nicolas LANGENEGGER** (Switzerland)

Proteases involved in the maturing of spider venom toxin
precursors

17:00–17:20

**Leah ASHLEY** (UK)

Silk processing: Is there methylation of silk in the underwater
spider *Argyroneta aquatica*?

17:20–19:00

*Closing ceremony/ESA meeting, etc.*
Spiders in caves: the CAWEB project

Stefano MAMMOLA<fnref n="1" />, Fulvio GASPARO<fnref n="2" />, Marjan KOMENOV³, Vlastimil RŮŽIČKA⁴, Sylvain DÉJEAN⁵, Samuel DANFLOUS⁵, Hervé BRUSTEL⁶, Robert S. VARGOVITSH⁷, Robert ROZWAŁKA⁸, Oana MOLDOVAN⁹, Martina PAVLEK¹⁰, Christo DELTSHEV¹¹, Boyan PETROV¹¹, Maria NAUMOVA¹², Srećko ĆURČIĆ¹³, Andrej MOCK¹⁴, Lubomir KOVAC¹⁴, Pedro CARDOSO¹⁵, László DÁNYI¹⁶, Dorottya ANGYAL¹⁶, Gergely BALÁZS¹⁷, Carles RIBERA<fnref n="18" />, Carlos E. PRIETO¹⁹, Jon FERNÁNDEZ¹⁹, Christian KOMPOSCH²⁰, Julian CARTER²¹ and Marco ISAIA<fnref n="1" />

World experts of different disciplines, from molecular biology to macroecology, recognize the value of cave ecosystems as ideal ecological and evolutionary laboratories. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders stand out as intriguing model organisms for their ecological role of top-predators, their unique adaptations to the hypogean medium and their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. Here, we provide a general overview of the spider families recorded in hypogean habitats in Europe – 20 families including nearly 500 species, most of them with restricted distributions. We also review the different adaptations of hypogean spiders to subterranean life and summarize the information gathered so far about their origin, population structure, ecology and conservation status. Taxonomic knowledge on subterranean spiders in

<footnote n="1">¹ Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Italy; email: marco.isaia@unito.it</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Commissione Grotte 'E. Boegan', Società Alpina delle Giulie, Trieste, Italy; ³Blwd Kuzman Josifovski Pitu, 19/5/3, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; ⁴Biology Centre, Institute of Entomology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic; ⁵Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels de Midi-Pyrénées, France; ⁶Ecole d'Ingénieur de Purpan, France; ⁷Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine; ⁸Zakład Zoologii UMCS, Poland; ⁹Emil Racovitza' Institute of Speleology, Bucharest, Romania; ¹⁰Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatian Biopsiological Society, Croatia; ¹¹National Museum Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria; ¹²Institut Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Sofia, Bulgaria; ¹³Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Serbia; ¹⁴Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Slovakia; ¹⁵Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; ¹⁶Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary; ¹⁷Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary;</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸Department of Zoology & Animal Cell Biology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain; ¹⁹Department of Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; ²⁰ÖKOTEAM - Institut für Tierökologie und Naturraumplanung OG, Graz, Austria; ²¹National Museum Wales, UK</footnote>
Europe appears to be well, but not exhaustively documented. The origin of the European assemblages is mostly explained by past climate dynamics, although other factors are likely to be involved. Most of the macroecological issues related to spiders in European caves are based on qualitative assessments or have been quantified only at a sub-regional scale. In order to shed light on cave spiders' biogeography and the macroecological patterns driving the diversity of European subterranean spiders we created the CAWEB network, a spontaneous collaboration between subterranean arachnologists from 30 different European countries. We here present the team and provide some preliminary results, which highlight Southern Europe as an important hot-spot for the European subterranean spider diversity.

**Keywords:** Araneae, biogeography, ecology, model organisms, subterranean taxa.