Meta bourneti Simon 1922
Creators: name: Nadolny, Anton A.
name: Turbanov, Ilya S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Araneae
Tetragnathidae
Meta
Meta bourneti

description: Meta bourneti Simon, 1922
Fig. 2 E – G
Meta bourneti Simon, 1922: Spassky 1936: 535; Charitonov 1936: 201; Charitonov 1939: 197; Charitonov 1947 a: 44 –45; Charitonov 1947 b: 1; Birstein 1963: 128; Tyshchenko 1971: 190; Mikhailov 1997: 108; Amelichev et al. 2004: 136; Evtushenko 2004: 66, 68; Zagorodniuk and Vargovitsh 2004: 207; Kovblyuk 2004 a: 244; Mikhailov 2013: 101; Kovblyuk 2014: 44–45, fig. 23; Kovblyuk and Kastrygina 2015: 56; Turbanov et al. 2016 b: 1283; Prokopov and Turbanov 2017: 101; Turbanov et al. 2019 a: 218; Samokhin et al. 2019: 247.
Meta sp.: Turbanov et al. 2019 b: 41.
Material examined.
• 1 ♀ (TNU 10265), Crimea, Bakhchisarai Distr., nr Khodzha-Sala Vil., steep southern slope of Baba-Dagh Plateau (= Mangup-Kale Gorodishche), Mangupskaya I (= MK- 1) Cave, 6–8. V. 2017, O. L. Makarova, K. V. Makarov leg. • 2 ♂♂ (TNU 10191/2) • 2 ♀♀ (IT), same cave, 2. X. 2020, I. S. Turbanov, A. A. Turbanova leg. • 1 ♂, 1 ♀, 4 juv. (IT), same cave, 2. VI. 2021, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 1 ♂ (TNU 10179), Crimea, Sevastopol, nr Balaklava, Aya Cape Mt. Range, Mt. Kala-Fatlar, Gnomov Cave, 9. X. 2016, A. A. Nadolny leg. • 1 ♂ 1 ♀ (IT), Crimea, Sevastopol, nr Balaklava, Aya Cape Mt. Range, Kala-Fatlar Mt., Gekkonovaya Cave, 28. XII. 2012, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 1 ♀ (TNU 10229) • 3 juv. (IT), Crimea, nr Sevastopol, Tshernaya River canyon, Tshernoretshenskaya Cave, 5. V. 2017, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 1 ♂ (TNU 10231/1), same cave, 3. III. 2018, A. A. Nadolny leg. • 1 ♀ (TNU 10287/3) • 2 ♀♀ 3 juv. (IT), same cave, 3. VI. 2021, I. S. Turbanov, A. A. Nadolny leg. • 1 ♀ (TNU 10191/2), Crimea, nr Sevastopol, northeastern slope of Baidarskаya Yaila, Baidarskaya Valley, nr Kizilovoye Vil., Mamut-Tshokrak Cave, 1–2. VI. 2013, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 1 ♂ (TNU 10228), same cave, 25. VI. 2017, I. S. Turbanov leg. • 2 ♀♀ (TNU 10181/1), Crimea, nr Sevastopol, western part of Ai-Petri Yaila, northeastern slope of Kilse-Burun Mt., unnamed cave, 14. IV. 2014; I. S. Turbanov leg • 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (IT), Crimea, Simferopol Distr., nr Perevalnoye Vil., western slope of Dolgorukovskaya Yaila, Kizil-Koba (= Krasnaya) Cave, 18. XII. 2019, I. S. Turbanov leg.
Distribution.
West Palearctic nemoral-subtropical: from Portugal to Georgia and from Britain to North Africa (Kovblyuk and Kastrygina 2015; Nentwig et al. 2024).
Records from the Crimean caves.
Map (Fig. 17 A – red circle). Caves in the south-western and central parts of the Crimean Mountains: Mangupskaya I, Gnomov, Gekkonovaya, Tshernoretshenskaya, Mamut-Tshokrak, unnamed cave on the northeastern slope of Kilse-Burun Mt. and Kizil-Koba (Spassky 1936; Charitonov 1947 a; Evtushenko 2004; Turbanov et al. 2019 a, b; present data).
Ecology.
A troglophile (Mammola et al. 2018). In Crimea, M. bourneti has been recorded only from caves, and hence is classified as a eutroglophile. There are data on the life cycle of M. bourneti, according to which the first instars of its postembryonic development may occur outside of caves (Mammola and Isaia 2014). However, we have repeatedly recorded juvenile specimens of different instars in Mangupskaya I and Tshernoretshenskaya caves, including those found at 50–100 meters from the entrances, and this suggests that in Crimea the life cycle of M. bourneti is completely restricted to caves.
Remarks.
The reference of Meta sp. for the caves of Cape Aya (Turbanov et al. 2019 b) refers to the material from Gnomov and Gekkonovaya caves used in present data.
description: Published as part of Nadolny, Anton A. & Turbanov, Ilya S., 2025, A review of cave spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) of the Crimean Mountains, with descriptions of two new species, pp. 37-80 in ZooKeys 1230 on pages 37-80, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1230.137029