Updated coin spider taxonomy

We publushed an updated overview of the spider genus Herennia, a group nicknamed “coin spiders” because of their appearance. These spiders belong to the family Nephilidae, a fascinating branch of the spider tree that includes species with dramatic differences in male and female size, notable for building ladder-shaped arboricolous webs.

Taxonomy — the science of naming and classifying life — might sound technical, but it’s essential for understanding biodiversity. This paper updates the list of known Herennia species and provides a practical key that lets researchers reliably identify each one.

The most recent revision recognized 11 species, only 4 of which were described from both sexes. Here, we present a taxonomic revision integrating new morphological and molecular data and recognize 14 species. We describe 3 new species and document previously unknown males of another two species.

Coin spiders are restricted to South and East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. The spotted coin spider, H. multipuncta, is the most widespread species, ranging from India and Sri Lanka across South and Southeast Asia to the Philippines. All remaining Herennia species have much narrower distributions. The biogeographic pattern of this genus may reflect repeated loss and regain of ballooning, a hypothesis that warrants experimental and comparative testing.

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