Erigonops

{{Short description| Genus of spiders}}

{{Speciesbox

| status = VU

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |last1=Dippenaar-Schoeman |first1=A. |last2=Foord |first2=S. |last3=Lotz |first3=L. |last4=Haddad |first4=C. |last5=Lyle |first5=R. |last6=Sethusa |first6=T. |year=2024 |title=Erigonops littoralis |volume=2024 |page=e.T176422452A189438661 |access-date=14 December 2024}}

| taxon = Erigonops littoralis

| authority = (Hewitt, 1915)

| parent_authority = Scharff, 1990{{cite journal |title=Gen. Erigonops Scharff, 1990 |url=http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/1293 |website=World Spider Catalog |publisher=Natural History Museum Bern |doi=10.24436/2 |version=Version 25.5 |access-date=14 December 2024}}

| synonyms = *Erigonopsis littoralis Hewitt, 1915

| synonyms_ref = {{cite web |title=Erigonops littoralis (Hewitt, 1915) |url=https://wsc.nmbe.ch/species/15376 |website=World Spider Catalog |publisher=Natural History Museum Bern |doi=10.24436/2 |version=Version 25.5 |access-date=14 December 2024}}

}}

Erigonops is a monotypic genus in the family Linyphiidae containing only the species Erigonops littoralis, a vulnerable species endemic to South Africa.

Taxonomy and history

The genus Erigonopsis and its sole species Erigonopsis littoralis were described by John Hewitt in 1915 based on several adult specimens collected at Muizenberg in September of 1914.{{cite journal |last1=Hewitt |first1=John |author1-link=John Hewitt (herpetologist) |year=1915 |title=New South African Arachnida |journal=Annals of the Natal Museum |volume=3 |pages=295-299 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6326237 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}} The genus would later be renamed Erigonops by Nickolaj Scharff in 1990, as Erigonopsis was a preoccupied name already used to refer to a genus of flies described by Charles Henry Tyler Townsend in 1912.{{cite journal |last1=Scharff |first1=Nickolaj |year=1990 |title=A catalogue of African Linyphiidae (Araneae) |journal=Steenstrupia |volume=16 |issue=8 |page=127}}

Distribution and habitat

Erigonops littoralis is known only from three locations in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It lives in the intertidal zone of rocky shores and surrounding habitats along the coast.

See also

References