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The spider family Phrurolithidae is revised in Azerbaijan, Iran and Tajikistan. The new genus Bosselaerius gen. n. is described to encompass three species: B. hyrcanicus sp. n. (type species, ♂ ♀, Azerbaijan, Iran), B. tajikistanicus sp. n. (♀, Tajikistan) and B. daoxianensis (Yin, Peng, Gong & Kim, 1997) comb. n. (♂, China). Furthermore, a new species of Phrurolithus C.L. Koch, 1839, namely P. azarkinae sp. n. (♂ ♀, Azerbaijan, Iran) is described, a redescription is provided for the poorly-known P. luppovae Spassky, 1941 (♂, Tajikistan), with its female being described for the first time, and P. pullatus Kulczyński, 1897 is recorded in Iran for the first time, representing the easternmost recorded locality for this species. Finally, 27 species of Chinese Phrurolithidae currently classified in Phrurolithus are transferred to Otacilia Thorell, 1897 on the basis of somatic characters and the morphology of the copulatory organs. Distributions of all treated species are mapped.

We present the results of some spider surveys that were conducted in different parts of Iran. Faunistic records for 30 species which are new to Iran are presented here. Biogeographic data are provided for each species. Two families, namely Liocranidae and Mimetidae, are recorded for the first time from the country.

Roughly 18,000 species are described annually as new to science, while estimated extinction rates are comparable to or even exceeding these new discoveries. Considering the estimates of up to 15 million extant eukaryotic species on Earth, of which only about 2 million have been described so far, there has been a recent ‘boom’ of new potential approaches to more quickly discover and describe the millions of unknown species. This deficit is particularly noted in hyperdiverse taxa, as the current rate of species discovery is considered too slow. Recently, a ‘minimalist’ alpha taxonomic approach was proposed, relying solely on DNA barcoding and a habitus photograph, in a claimed effort to expedite the naming of new species to combat the so-called taxonomic impediment. In this paper, we point to limitations of minimalist taxonomy, present arguments in favour of the integrative approach, and finally explore a number of potential solutions to combat the taxonomic impediment in hyperdiverse taxa without sacrificing utility and quality for apparent speed and quantity.

New taxonomic and faunistic data on the agelenid spiders of Turkiye and the Caucasus are provided. Five species are described as new to science: Maimuna antalyensissp. nov. (♂♀; Turkiye: Antalya), Tegenaria ballarinisp. nov. (♂♀; Turkiye: Antalya), T. beyazcikasp. nov. (♂; Turkiye: Antalya), T. egrisianasp. nov. (♂♀; Georgia: Imereti), and T. hoeferisp. nov. (♂♀; Armenia: Kotayk). Tegenaria lazarovi Dimitrov, 2020, syn. nov. is proposed as a new junior synonym of T. averni Brignoli, 1978. Persiscape caucasica (Guseinov, Marusik & Koponen, 2005) is newly reported from Armenia, and T. chumachenkoi Kovblyuk & Ponomarev, 2008 is reported for the first time from Turkiye. New distribution records for T. dalmatica Kulczyński, 1906, T. hamid Brignoli, 1978, T. longimana Simon, 1898 and T. percuriosa Brignoli, 1972, and topotype material for T. tekke Brignoli, 1978 are reported. The record of Eratigena fuesslini (Pavesi, 1873) from Turkiye is found to be based on a misidentification, and is herein attributed to T. hamid. The presence of an embolic spine, unknown in any other species of Tegenaria, is documented in T. anhela Brignoli, 1972 for the first time. Photographs are provided for all treated species.