South African National Survey of Arachnida Photo Identification Guide: The Araneidae of South Africa version 2: part 2 (E-Ne)

The family Araneidae has a worldwide distribution with a large diversity of 174 genera and 3128 species. With the large number of specimens sampled during the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA) several genera have been identified as possibly new records for South Africa. In this guide we discuss 47genera represented by 105 species that are all listed on the South African National Species List but 16 of these genera represented by 36 species are not listed on the World Spider Catalog for South Africa yet. Only 21 of the species are South African endemics. Of the 105 species 93 (88%) have a wide distribution and is listed as Least Concern and nine are Data Deficient. Only three species are of special concern: Caerostris tinamaze Gregorič, 2015 being Vulnerable under the B criterion and the two bolas species Cladomelea akermani Hewitt, 1923 and Cladomelea debeeri Roff & Dippenaar-Schoeman, 2004 are listed an Endangered. There are numerous of new species that still need to described and for only 66 species both sexes are known. It will therefore take time before the exact status of the Araneidae will be known