Zoology/Biology session

Our planet is viewed as geographically explored since 1650, but the knowledge of the species inhabiting it is scarce. One of the unknown white spots is New Guinea, the second largest island and the last untouched wilderness on Earth. The Indonesian side of the island lags behind Papua New Guinea in terms of salticid taxonomic research, and we have no data on Batanta Island as well. In my thesis I describe 7 species collected from Batanta Island, 4 of which are new to science (Cosmophasis batanta sp. nov., Cytaea spicupes sp. nov., Myrmarachne flangeless sp. nov., Zenodorus lucernus sp. nov.) and 3 species new to fauna (Coccorchestes rufipes Thorell, 1881, Diolenius phrynoides (Walckenaer, 1837), Pristobaeus beccarii (Thorell, 1881)). In addition, based on museum specimens previously collected from New Guinea I rediscribe 2 species (Zenodorus arcipluvii Peckham & Peckham, 1901, Z. durvillei (Walckenaer, 1837)) and describe one new species (Zenodorus danniellae sp. nov.).