The pharmacological utility of various biochemical compounds in scorpion venom offers promise in several research fields but its potential economic value has placed pressure on scorpion populations already threatened by habitat destruction and overharvesting for the international trade in exotic pets. Since at least 2016, several countries in Africa and Asia reported an increase in the number of people investing in farms for maintaining scorpions and extracting (‘milking') their venom for commercial use. In addition to serious doubts about the quality of the venom extracted at these farms, repeated collecting of wild specimens may denude an area of scorpions. Given estimates of a million species threatened with extinction over the next decade, unsustainable overexploitation remains a major driver of biodiversity loss. The amateur venom-extraction business has the potential to adversely affect scorpion biodiversity in several biologically rich but poorly documented countries, which calls for urgent action from governments, universities and scientific societies to enhance the conservation of local scorpions. The following activities should thus be initiated or expanded: faunistic surveys and developing national lists of endemic species, red-listing threatened and endangered species using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, educating local communities, and ceasing to issue permits for the collection of scorpions for commercial exploitation of any kind.

New cases of phoresy of pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones: Atemnidae, Chernetidae) are recorded from Slovakia. The phoresy of the species Atemnus politus (Simon, 1878) involving owlet moth (Noctuidae) as a host is documented for the first time not only in Slovakia, but also worldwide. One phoretic female of Lamprochernes chyzeri (Tömösváry, 1883) was attached to the leg of a lance fly (Lonchaeidae). It represents the second known phoresy of the species from Slovakia and the record of a new host.

Dry grassland areas of Ukraine are highly fragmented due to human activity. All of them require protection and thorough study of their biota. Arachnological research in the Yelanetskyi Steppe Natural Reserve has been conducted for the first time. An annotated list of spiders includes 113 species in 23 families. Salticidae (20 species, 17.7% of the species list) and Gnaphosidae (18 species, 15.9%) are the most species rich. The studied reserve is the westernmost locality of Ero koreana Paik, 1967 and Zelotes eugeneiKovblyuk, 2009. Richest were the ecotone habitats on the edges of forest plantations and shrub thickets (43–45 species), while the poorest were the most disturbed open grassland habitats like grazed steppe, secondary steppe and meadows (25–26 species). Spider assemblages of the undisturbed forb-fescue-feather grass and petrophytic steppe habitats accounted for 33–37 species. A comparison of the dry grassland spider faunas of 11 protected areas in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Ukraine showed that the araneofauna of the Yelanetskyi Steppe is most similar to those of both forb-fescue-feather grass steppes of Southeast Ukraine and fescue-feather grass steppes of South Ukraine. Moreover, the spider fauna of the Yelanetskyi Steppe contains the least specific elements. 33% of the species are widespread and only 3.8% are recorded from one or only two close sites. Similarity of the spider faunas depends on the geographical location of the study area and on the types of the grasslands.

An inventory of arachnids was conducted in three tropical greenhouses of Rotterdam Zoo, the Netherlands. This was part of a survey in which pitfall traps, banana baits, litter samples, hand searching and beating were used to map arthropod diversity. A total of twenty spider species, one mite taxon and one pseudoscorpion species were collected. Fourteen specimens were used for COI-barcoding, which yielded two of the listed species. Four spider species were recorded for the first time for the Netherlands: Belisana ambenganHuber, 2005, Heteroonops spinimanus (Simon, 1892), Nesticella mogera (Yaginuma, 1972) and Triaeris stenaspis Simon, 1891, the first of which is also a new record for Europe and appears to be an extremely rare pholcid species. From the species found, thirteen are nonnative to the Netherlands and four of these are considered as expansive, since they have outdoor populations as well. Hand searching yielded the highest number of species, compared to the other four sampling techniques. A species saturation curve shows that in all likelihood not all species present in the surveyed greenhouses have been found during this survey.

During a study on pseudoscorpions in 2019, a total of 74 individuals from four species and four families was collected in Moldova. The species Ephippiochthonius sarmaticus Kolesnikov, Turbanov & Gongalsky, 2019, Chelifer cancroides (Linnaeus, 1758) and Withius hispanus (L. Koch, 1873), as well as the families Cheliferidae and Withiidae, are reported for the first time in Moldova. The finding of E. sarmaticus represents the second known country for its distribution within Europe. With the present results, the number of Moldavian pseudoscorpions increased to seven species, five genera and five families.

All available Danish Ephippiochthonius Beier, 1930 material was examined in this study to investigate if some specimens conform to E. kewiGabbutt, 1966, a species previously not reported from Denmark. Specimens were sorted into four groups by number of microsetae (0–3) present along the posterior border of the cephalothorax. The distribution of each group was mapped and related to recorded habitat, chaetotaxy of genital opercula, number of preocular microsetae and colouration of the cephalothorax. It was possible to assign most specimens of the four groups to two taxa conforming to E. kewi and E. tetrachelatus (Preyssler, 1790), thus both species are members of the Danish fauna. The grey-brown and strictly coastal E. kewi inhabits sheltered coasts throughout Denmark, while the yellow-brown E. tetrachelatus shows a distinct south-eastern distribution and is found at both inland and coastal sites. Chaetotaxy of the genital opercula did not differ between females of the two species, but for males it was found that E. tetrachelatus has a statistically significant higher proportion of specimens with 11 rather than 10 setae on the anterior genital operculum compared to E. kewi. The most frequent configuration of preocular microsetae in both species is two on each side, but E. kewi has significantly fewer (average a lower mean of microsetae) compared to E. tetrachelatus. The variation in chaetotaxy of the cephalothorax is limited in each species in those regions where species distributions do not overlap. But in regions with overlapping distributions, like south-eastern Denmark, some populations exhibited a higher variability in chaetotaxy which could be due to local hybridisation events. These assumed hybrids are grey-brown as E. kewi, but possess the habitat preferences of E. tetrachelatus which may explain why they are not strictly coastal, but usually found near the coast. Ephippiochthonius tetrachelatus is frequently introduced from abroad, resulting in establishment of at least temporary populations in garden centres and botanical gardens. A limited number of Ephippiochthonius specimens from Sweden were also examined and it appears that both species are present in this material as well.

The following eight new synonyms are proposed: Araneus arganicola Simon, 1909 = Neoscona subfusca (C. L. Koch, 1837) syn. doi: 10.30963/aramit6109 nov.; Drassus nugatoriusKarsch, 1881 = Odontodrassus mundulus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1881) syn. nov.; Drassus sockniensisKarsch, 1881 = Poecilochroa pugnax (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874) syn. nov.; Drassus tarrhunensisKarsch, 1881 = Megamyrmaekion caudatumReuss, 1834syn. nov.; Prosthesima kerimiPavesi, 1880 = Zelotes tragicus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) syn. nov.; Prosthesima quadridentataStrand, 1906 = Scotophaeus quadridentatusCaporiacco, 1928 = Setaphis mollis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874) syn. nov.; Steatoda erigoniformis (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) = Euryopis albomaculataDenis, 1951syn. nov. The position of Drassus obscurusLucas, 1846 in Drassodes is confirmed and the first figures of the female epigyne and vulva are given. The citation of Dactylopisthes digiticeps (Simon, 1881) from Tunisia by Pavesi (1884) is a misidentification and concerns Thaumatoncus indicatorSimon, 1884. A new species is described: Pelecopsis pavesiispec. nov. from Tunisia, erroneously identified by Pavesi (1884) as Pelecopsis parumpunctata (Simon, 1881).

The first pedipalpal regeneration observed in a fossil harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) is documented in a specimen of Dicranopalpus ramiger (Koch & Berendt, 1854) from Eocene Baltic amber (ca. 44–49 Ma). The tibia of the right pedipalp is strongly truncated and shorter than the adjacent patella and its apophysis. Possible reasons for this aberration are discussed. It most likely represents an example of partial tibial regeneration after a traumatic event, while experimental manipulation of the pedipalps of extant phalangiid harvestmen suggests that the observed morphology in the amber fossil is unlikely to be due to autospasy.

The species Berlandina mesopotamicaAl-Khazali, 2020 was recently described from southern Iraq on the basis of males. Here the female is described and illustrated for the first time.

Porrhomma frasassianumspec. nov., a blind troglobitic spider from the sulfidic Grotta del Fiume – Grotta Grande del Vento cave system (Italy), is described and illustrated. The relationship between this new species and other European species of Porrhomma is discussed, its distribution in the Frasassi cave system is analysed and the spider species cohabiting with the newly described species are listed.

A total of 667 specimens of pseudoscorpions, belonging to 15 species and four families were collected during 2014. Samples were taken from leaf litter at five localities in the Western Carpathians in the Slovak Karst National Park, Slovakia. The most abundant families were Neobisiidae (381 specimens) and Chthoniidae (275 specimens). Furthermore ten chernetid specimens and a single cheliferid deutonymph were recorded. Four of the 15 pseudoscorpion species were recorded in the Slovak Karst for the first time.

During a survey of the jumping spider fauna of the Greek island of Corfu, 30 species in 18 genera were recorded. Four species, Heliophanus equester L. Koch, 1867, Neaetha absheronicaLogunov & Guseinov, 2002, Pellenes floriiSchäfer, 2020 and Talavera aequipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1871) were recorded on the island for the first time. In addition, the previously unknown female of Salticus unicolor (Simon, 1868) is described and three new synonymies are proposed within the genus Salticus: Salticus mandibularis (Simon, 1868) = S. unciger (Simon, 1868) syn. nov., Salticus olivaceus (L. Koch, 1867) = S. propinquusLucas, 1846syn. conf. and Salticus quaggaMiller, 1971 = S. unicolorsyn. nov.. Moreover, a number of taxonomic problems regarding the genus Pellenes are briefly discussed.

Three species from three different genera of jumping spiders (Salticidae) were collected from Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. Two doi: 10.30963/aramit6115 species are reported from the country for the first time: Leptorchestes peresi (Simon, 1868) (♂, ♀) and Talavera petrensis (C. L. Koch, 1837) (♂, ♀). The third species, Heliophanus feltoniLogunov, 2009, was described from Kayseri and Niğde provinces in Turkey, and the record from Kahramanmaraş represents the southeasternmost locality currently known. The characteristic features of all three species are described and figured.