Pardosa C.L. Koch, 1847 is the third largest genus among spiders and most species-rich genus within the Lycosidae, with over 550 species. Currently 30 species groups are recognized in the genus. One of the largest is the Pardosa monticola species groups with over 30 species distributed in the Holarctic. Although it is easy to delimit this species group from others, it is very hard to distinguish species within it. Of 21 Pardosa species recorded from Iran, seven species (or one third) belong to the monticola-group. In Iran, the most widespread species of this group is P. pontica (Thorell, 1875), which is known from West Azerbaijan Province through to eastern Mazandaran. A detailed morphological comparison of eastern and western populations of this species from Iran has revealed clear differences between the two populations. The western population has the same colour pattern and spination as found in specimens from the type locality (the Crimea) and seems to be true P. pontica. The eastern population belongs to a new species. Although the two species differ in colour, size and leg spination, no molecular differences in COI, 28 SrRNA and 16SrRNA have been found between these species. We are planning to apply ddRAD sequencing, a novel method that allows us to separate sibling species in the Pardosinae.

Keywords