The poorly known wolf spider “Alopecosa” charitonovi Mcheidze, 1997 is redescribed and anew combination Geolycosa charitonovi (Mcheidze, 1997) n. comb, ex Alopecosa is proposed. The male of this species is described for the first time. Geolycosa charitonovi is distributed across the whole Caucasus Major from Krasnodar Province in Russia to Azerbaijan and Dagestan. Data on its natural history are provided.

A new species of the genus Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 is described based on specimens collected at the locality Celano (AQ), Abruzzo, central Italy. It is characterized by a peculiar trichobothrial pattern (eba = 5-5 eb = 4-4), a large number of pectine teeth, and a general colouration which is dark brownish, with legs and telson yellowish. With the description of this new species a new trichobothrial pattern is described. The number of Euscorpius species in Italy is thus raised to ten, and the number of species in the subgenus Euscorpius to five.

Due to land use changes, sandy open xerothermic areas in southern Germany have become rare, small, and isolated. Consequently, many xero-, thermo- or psammophile spider species have become restricted in their distribution, and endangered. The remaining open landscapes are priority sites for nature conservation. This also applies to the large (70 ha) former military site “Alter Flugplatz” within the urban area of Karlsruhe. There we studied the effects of management measures and habitat structure on the spider assemblages in three biotope types using one year of pitfall trapping. Ruderalized sites showed distinct assemblages from sandy turf and mat grass sites. The mowed mat grass sites differed from the grazed sites, which were more similar to the sandy turf. Apparently, habitat structure was more important for spider assemblages than plant species composition. Spider diversity correlated positively with vertical structural diversity, and negatively with bare ground in the trap surroundings. Grazing strongly increased the spider species richness in the ruderalized sites, but only slightly in grassland biotopes. Target species were more frequently caught under grazing. The spider guild composition was altered by grazing in sandy turfs and Nardus grassland, but not in the ruderalized sites, while guild diversity was always lower under grazing.

In this work we present new records of Steatoda nobilis (Thorell, 1875), a species originally from Madeira and the Canary Islands, for the Italian mainland and Sardinia. We discuss local ecology and ethology and provide brief genital and morphological descriptions of both sexes.

Two new species of the genus Buthus (Leach, 1815) were described in 2004 in Spain: B. montanus Lourenço & Vachon, 2004 and B. ibericus Lourenço & Vachon, 2004. Gantenbein & Largiadèr (2003) distinguished divergent clades among European Buthus in their phylogenetic analysis. Subsequently, Sousa et al. (2010) reported five distinct mtDNA lineages within Buthus from the Iberian Peninsula, two of which they reported for the first time. In the present work, a new species, Buthus elongates n. sp., is described, which is most similar to one of the two lineages of Sousa et al. (2010): samples Sc 98 and Sc 99, lineage 3 in their study, from southern Spain, which resemble Buthus occitanus morphologically, but differ from the other specimens of this species by 8.6%. A key for all European Buthus and a summary of their distribution are provided.

Knowledge of the Italian trapdoor spider fauna started with Costa's 1835 description of the female of Nemesia meridionalis. In order to establish a suitable taxonomic basis for a planned revision of the Italian mainland Nemesia fauna it was felt necessary to revalidate the identity of this species. Because Costa's original specimens appear to be lost, we collected new specimens from Costa's type locality (Camaldoli near Naples). On the basis of this material, and older material from Costa's type locality collected and identified as N. meridionalis by Louis Fage (1917), we redescribe N. meridionalis and present, for the first time, a description of the male of this species.

The frequent claims that the population of Dolomedes plantarius is declining in numbers in Europe due to loss of habitat is not supported by evidence. For many years, information on this species was unreliable due to taxonomic confusion with D. fimbriatus and because adults of both species are identical and cannot be separated in the field unless collected for examination. Greater interest in D. plantarius in recent years has revealed new records from many European countries, though data are still inadequate for a reliable assessment of its distribution and status. Available information on its behaviour, habitat and ecology in Europe is summarized. The conservation problems of D. plantarius at Redgrave and Lopham Fen, England, are discussed in relation to its status elsewhere.