New light on some historical type specimens -in relation to the South American spider (Araneae) fauna-.

Type specimens are the core of taxonomical studies, unfortunately, many taxonomists in the 1800s did not officially designate type specimens nor type deposition institutions. Furthermore, oftentimes the original description did not include diagnosis or images. In order to help recognise obscure spider species, diagnosis and images of 73 spider-type specimens from South America, or genera also occurring on the continent are presented. Based on type examination four new synonyms are proposed: Abapeba hirta = Teminius insularis new syn., Araneus riveti = Araneus granadensis new syn., Scytodes vittata = Scytodes fusca new syn., and Pardosa riveti = Pardosa fastosa new syn.; and five new combinations are proposed: Creugas cayanus (Taczanowski, 1874) new comb., Emblyna andesiana (Berland, 1913) new comb., Mangora karschi (Roewer, 1942) new comb., Leucauge aureosignata (Lenz, 1891) new comb. and, Goeldia guayaquilensis (Schmidt 1971) new comb. Finally, three synonyms are rejected: Ulesanis chelys ≠ Ulesanis personata, Tetragnatha riveti ≠ Tetragnatha jaculator, and Meta alticola ≠ Chrysometa zelotypa. LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:399EF4D0-3AC0-4689-B466-C05619DC7D53. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]