The first record of the family Prodidomidae (Arachnida: Araneae) in Turkey

WOS: 000281496500019Prodidomus amaranthinus (Lucas, 1846) is the first record of the family Prodidomidae in Turkey. Its characteristic features, drawings of its genitalia, and general habitats of both sexes and descriptions are presented. Data on the collection and distribution of the species all over the world are also given.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [106T133]We are very grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for its financial support of this work (Project No. 106T133)

Description of the females of the spiders Plesiophantes joosti Heimer, 1981 and Araeoncus clavatus Tanasevitch, 1987 from Turkey (Araneae: Linyphiidae)

WOS: 000300756000012Plesiophantes joosti Heimer, 1981 and Araeoncus clavatus Tanasevitch, 1987 were originally described on the basis of single male specimens from Georgia and Armenia, respectively. The females of both species have not yet been described. We redescribe P. joosti based on a series of new specimens including 2 adult males and 6 adult females collected from two localities in the Artvin province of Turkey. A. clavants is redescribed based on 3 adult males and 1 adult female collected from two localities in the Artvin and Ardahan provinces of Turkey. Both species are new records for the spider fauna of Turkey. Drawings of characteristic features, the female genitalia and the male palpal organs arc presented.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [TBAK: 107T017, 210T033]We are very grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for financial support of this work (Project No. TBAK: 107T017) and for providing a digital camera (Project No. 210T033)

A Contribution to the Study of Turkish Spider Fauna (Araneae)

WOS: 000347269100022Four spider species, Agelescape caucasica Guseinov, Marusik & Koponen, 2005, Megalepthyphantes nebulosus (Sundevall, 1830), Micaria bosmansi Kovblyuk & Nadolny, 2008, and Phlegra cinereofasciata (Simon, 1868), are reported as new for the spider fauna of Turkey. Data on the collecting sites and the general distribution of each species are presented.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [TBAK: 112T067]We are grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for its financial support of this work (Project No. TBAK: 112T067)

Description of the previously unknown female of Drassodes bifidus Kovblyuk & Seyyar, 2009 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) from Turkey

WOS: 000365097200006Drassodes bifidus Kovblyuk & Seyyar, 2009, previously known only from one male from southern Turkey (Alanya District, Antalya Province), is redescribed on the basis of newly collected materials. The female of Drassodes bifidus is described for the first time. Illustrations, description, and distribution are presented.TUBITAK [112T067]The authors are indebted to TUBITAK (Project No. 112T067) for financial support of this work. We also thank Mr Hakki Oner and Mr Beyhan Kayhan for their help in the field studies

A new spider of the genus Troglohyphantes (Araneae: Linyphiidae) from a Turkish cave

WOS: 000261906600012A new species of Troglohyphantes Joseph, 1881 is described from Turkey. Differences between the new species and related species are discussed. The morphological characters to distinguish this species from the closely related species are indicated and illustrated. Notes on the habitat and some SEM photographs of this species arc also given.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [106T133]We are very grateful to Dr Andrei V. TANASEVITCH (Russia) and Dr Fulvio GASPARO (Italy) for advice and valuable comments, and we acknowledge the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for financial support of this work (Project No. 106T133). We also wish to thank Mr. Hakan DEMIR (Gazi University, Ankara), who collected some of the material used in this paper

Walckenaeria aksoyi sp n. (Araneae : Linyphiidae) from Turkey

WOS: 000259141400014Walckenaeria aksoyi sp. n. (Araneae: Linyphiidae) is described based on males from Marmaris Province in Turkey

Contributions to the Linyphiidae fauna of Turkey (Arachnida: Araneae)

WOS: 000357587200003Abacoproeces topcui sp. nov. (Araneae: Linyphiidae) is described based on male specimens from Mersin Province in Turkey. Four species, namely Araeoncus tauricus Gnelitsa, 2005; Erigonoplus globipes (L. Koch, 1872); Megalepthyphantes pseudocollinus Saaristo, 1997; and Styloctetor romanus (O.P.-Cambridge, 1872), belonging to this family are new records for the spider fauna of Turkey. Styloctetor Simon, 1884 has been recorded as a new genus for Turkey. Data on collected localities, distribution throughout the world, and genitalia figures of each species are presented.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [TBAK: 106T133]We are very grateful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for its financial support of this work (Project No. TBAK: 106T133)

A new spider family record for Turkey (Araneae : Anyphaenidae) aydin Topcu, Tuncay Turkes, Hakan Demir, and Osman Seyyar

WOS: 000254249400015The spider Anyphaena pontica Weiss, 1988 (Araneac, Anyphaenidae) and Anyphaenidae family are recorded from Turkey for the first time

Structural Characterization Of A Variety Of Spider Silks From Turkey Using Different Biophysical Techniques

Various experimental methods (XRD, FTIR, SAXS, DLS and SEM) were used to investigate structures of the silk samples weaved by spiders in Turkey. Silk samples were collected from the natural habitats belonging to the spider species (i.e., Near Salt Lake/Sereflikochisar,. Ivriz Dam/Eregli-Konya, Karatas Lake/Burdur and several locations in Black Sea Region of Turkey). Among all collected species, Araneidae (Araneus angulatus, Argiope bruennichi, Argiope lobata, Larinoides cornutus), Eresidae (Eresus cinnaberinus), Agelenidae (Agelena labyrinthica), Oecobidae (Uroctea durandi), Miturgidae (Cheiracanthium erraticum), Salticidae (Heliophanus flavipes, Philaeus chrysops), Theridiidae (Steatoda paykulliana) and Gnaphosidae were found significant amongst other spider species. Structural differences and similarities of these species were reported. Diameter range of draglines, inter crystallite distance of nano-size structures, mean size range of nano-structure aggregations, crystallite size range, information about protein content were obtained. The mechanical properties of some silk fibers were also investigated.Wo

Bat guano as new and attractive chitin and chitosan source

WOS: 000340918700001Introduction: Chitin is a biopolymer that forms the exoskeleton of arthropods, and is found in the cell walls of fungi. It has a wide range of uses in fields such as cosmetics, pharmacy, medicine, bioengineering, agriculture, textiles and environmental engineering based upon its nontoxic, ecofriendly, biocompability and biodegradability characteristics. Commercially, chitin is obtained from processing the outer skeleton of Crustacea such as shrimp, crab, prawn and crayfish after they have been consumed as food. The study aims to examine the nature of bat guano and to determine if it is a practical source of chitin, which has not been done previously. Results: In this study, the chitin content of dry bat guano samples was found to be 28%. The bat guano, which was collected from Karacamal Cave, came from the bat species Rhinolophus hipposideros. The chitosan yield of this chitin was 79%. The chitin produced from the bat guano was determined to be in the alpha form according to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results. The crystallinity of the chitin and chitosan samples was calculated as 85.49 and 58.51% respectively by X-ray crystallography (XRD) experiments. According to scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs, the chitin and chitosan structures were shaped like nanofibers. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that both chitin and chitosan had two step weight losses, which are characteristic of these materials. The nitrogen content of the chitin and chitosan was 6.47 and 7.3% respectively according to the elemental analysis results. Conclusions: In this research, it has been observed that bat guano can be considered to be an alternative source of chitin and chitosan to crab, shrimp, crayfish and krill.Aksaray University BAP [2014-005]We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Ahmet KARATAS for bat species identification. This study was funded by Aksaray University BAP (2014-005)